Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes will quiz F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone over TV blackout
Toto Wolff's team criticise Formula One chief for failing to show Mercs on the track this season as much as the rest of the field just because they are dominating races
LEWIS HAMILTON’s Mercedes team will quiz F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone over a possible TV blackout.
Hamilton’s domination last season and team-mate Nico Rosberg’s four wins from four races in 2016 has raised fresh questions about whether they have been bumped off F1’s live coverage.
Despite the team’s on-track success, there is a noticeable lack of TV pictures featuring the two Mercs which has not gone unnoticed by the team’s bosses.
Ecclestone controls the live TV feed shown by both Sky Sports F1 and Channel 4.
And Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is ready to find out why they have hardly featured on screen.
He said: “It is a difficult thing and we are having discussions to make our point.
“We thought we didn’t have the exposure of the race cars that we thought we should have, but I guess it is a difficult discussion.
“I think the difficulty for Bernie is that he has multiple clients.
There are the sponsors on the car, the sponsors on the track, the TV and the fans who want to see spectacular racing and the main protagonist who is leading the race and that needs to be balanced out.”
It is not the first time Ecclestone is believed to have manipulated TV pictures.
In the 2012, Force India were not shown during the qualifying session for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
And in Japan last year, Mercedes had under six minutes of coverage during the whole race with many believing it was a response after they refused to supply rivals Red Bull with engines for this season.
Meanwhile, the brother of a racing driver killed by a piece of flying debris says he cannot understand why Ecclestone and Hamilton are against the canopy designs being tested in F1.
The sport’s governing body want to introduce new safety measures to improve drivers’ safety after Wilson and Jules Bianchi died last year.
Ferrari have trialled the “Halo” device while Red Bull tested the “aeroscreen” in Russia.
However, world champion Hamilton was unimpressed and labelled them “the worst modification in F1 history” and looked like a “riot shield”, respectively.
Ecclestone also sparked outrage but insisting he would do “nothing” when asked about the introduction or either of the two designs.
But Stefan Wilson, whose brother was driving at an Indycar race in Pennsylvania when he was struck on the helmet, said he cannot understand why the safety measures are criticised.
He said: “It’s very easy to be short sighted, to be sure it will hit opposition to begin with but once people adjust, it will become the new normal.
“If it means we don’t lose any more drivers I’m all for it. I don’t see how you can be against that.”