Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff admits there’s growing concern Lewis Hamilton could miss the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix after complaining of back pain in Baku.
Both Hamilton and teammate George Russell complained about back pain throughout the weekend due to how much their Mercedes W13 was porpoising.
The seven-time World Champion was in visible pain when he slowly climbed out of his car following Sunday’s race, and Wolff admits there’s a chance he could miss next weekend’s race in Canada as a result.
“Yeah, definitely,” said Wolff when asked about the possibility of Hamilton sitting out.
“I haven’t seen him and I haven’t spoken to him afterwards, but you can see this is not muscular anymore.
“I mean, this goes properly into the spine and can have some consequences. He’s really bad. We have just got to find a solution.
“At this stage I think he is maybe the worst affected from all drivers. But pretty much everyone, as far as I understood from the drivers, said that something needs to happen. But I couldn’t give you an explanation what that is.”
Mercedes options if Hamilton sits out
Mercedes‘ current reserve drivers are Formula E duo Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries, and Wolff wouldn’t rule out turning to one of them in the event Hamilton sits out in Montreal.
“The solution could be to have someone on reserve, which we anyway have at every race to make sure that our car is running,” Wolff said.
