Cringeworthy Toto Wolff idea would have made Lewis Hamilton ‘puke’

Oliver Harden 02 Aug 2023 4:30 PM

Lewis Hamilton on the grid with his hands to his head. Bahrain March 2023

Toto Wolff has revealed that Lewis Hamilton flatly rejected his idea to play rock gods AC/DC in the Mercedes garage, with the seven-time World Champion joking that it would have made him “puke.”

The Mercedes team boss made the revelation while appearing as a guest on Desert Island Discs, the long-running BBC Radio 4 program in which famous figures list the defining songs of their lives.

Hamilton’s passion for music is well established, with the 38-year-old appearing on Christina Aguilera’s track “Pipe” in 2018 under the pseudonym XNDA and working alongside Major Lazer, the electronic dance music DJ trio, last year.

Lewis Hamilton unimpressed by Toto Wolff’s music suggestion

然而沃尔夫解释说,他的司机了line at AC/DC, having refused to let him play the song Thunderstruck to pump up Mercedes’ mechanics in the past.

“I think we have a similar music taste,” Wolff said. “Obviously his is much more sophisticated – but many years ago I said to him, ‘What would you think if we were to play AC/DC’s Thunderstruck in the garage before going out with the cars, to have all the mechanics listen to this?’

“And he said: ‘It would make me puke!'”

Wolff went on to reveal his full list of eight songs, with the Queen anthem ‘We Are The Champions’ making the cut alongside hits from the likes of Massive Attack, Genesis, Annie Lennox, Paolo Nutini and Phil Collins.

Participants in Desert Island Discs are also invited to choose a single book – not including the Bible and the entire works of Shakespeare – and a luxury item to take to the fantasy island.

Wolff elected to pick ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’, an adventure novel written in 1845 by the French author and playwright Alexandre Dumas – best known for penning ‘The Three Musketeers’ – as his reading material.

The 51-year-old chose a practical option – diving fins and a mask – as his luxury item.

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Mercedes head into F1’s traditional summer break after a troublesome first half of 2023, in which the team committed to a redesign of their W14 car as early as the first race in Bahrain.

汉密尔顿和te五台上完成am-mate George Russell in total from the first 12 races, Mercedes’ results have improved only marginally since a heavily revised car was introduced in Monaco at the end of May, yet Hamilton managed to secure his first pole position since the penultimate round of the 2021 season in Hungary.

Mercedes currently lead Aston Martin by 51 points in the race for second place in the Constructors’ standings behind the dominant Red Bull team, with Ferrari five points further back in fourth.