Toto Wolff has revealed that the FIA is working on some kind of fine to be imposed on F1 teams for protesting too many times, knowing the outcome.
The protest from Red Bull after the grand prix in Canada did nothing apart from wasting everyone’s time. In some cases it is not clear if there will be a penalty or not, but in most cases, it is more or less certain that the penalties will remain as it is without any change.
In a lot of cases, it ends up wasting time of everyone involved. Certainly, protest is a fundamental right, but excess use of it makes little sense. Mercedes chief Wolff has similar thoughts. He is no fan of extra fine, but he believes in this regard, there could be something done.
In fact, Wolff noted that the FIA is already working on the topic. “Well, I think it’s absolutely legitimate to protest,” he said. “We are fighting for race wins and championships and if you have the opinion that what you’ve seen is not right, then you should protest.
“But some of these actions are just really not real. You know, protesting something that you call unsportsmanlike behaviour, a long shot, or you’re protesting a car not leaving ten car lengths between himself and the Safety Car – well, he still needs to respect the delta. So, there are things that, from my perspective, are legit to protest and others that are just a little bit of a too long shot.
“And then you’re waiting two hours until you actually protest because you need to figure out on what to base it. You take one protest back suddenly, and then we’re all there five hours. Everybody misses planes going home, and we end up with a result that was a little bit predictable. That’s something that I thought was not necessary.
“Coming back to your question on higher fines, no one is a fan of higher fines. It’s a lot of money, and in Formula 1 we need to be careful that we are still being perceived as not over the top in relation to the normal world. But in that instance, absolutely put in a fine, and I think the President of the FIA is working on that.
“Put in a fine that, at least if you lose it, is a little bit of an embarrassment that you lost so much money, and you’re going to think twice whether you do it. I think this is along the lines the FIA are thinking,” summed up Wolff, as Sauber’s Jonathan Wheatley backed what the Austrian said about ongoing discussions regarding a potential fine on too many protests.
“I think I’m just looking at the situation. I’m not looking at the teams involved,” said Wheatley. “I know that teams agonise over protests, but it’s so important that teams have a right to do that. I think if you take away that right or make it too prohibitive, you’ll end up with more problems. I like the transparency. I like the conversation that’s going on around it at the moment.
“I know people are talking about the amount of the fine and the amount of the protest fee and what have you. But in Formula 1, that would have to be quite significant. I think it’s a healthy conversation going on about it at the moment,” summed up Wheatley.
Mercedes driver and GPDA director George Russell agreed with his boss Wolff regarding extra fines, where he feels the current fees of 2000 euros is minuscule for teams like Red Bull or even Mercedes. “Yeah, 100%,” he started. “When you look at the financial penalties for using swear words in the heat of the moment, or touching a rear wing, €2,000 for a team making nine-figure profits is not even going to touch the side.
“It is not going to be thought about, so yeah, potentially, if it was a six-figure sum to be put down, maybe they would think twice about it, and you do get your money back if you win a protest, so it is basically your own risk, whereas, at the moment, €2,000 for a Formula 1 team is not even a consideration.
“It was nothing, and it all came from Red Bull, as opposed to Max, I don’t think he was even aware of the protests back in Canada. It was pretty clear that there was not going to be any penalty, and my personal view is that they wanted to go and be offensive to protect Max in case he got a penalty for going ahead of me during the safety car incident. My personal view is that it was just a bit of a faff and not really necessary.”
Here’s Toto Wolff on Frederic Vasseur
Here’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Toto Wolff on mindset
Here’s Aston Martin on George Russell
