Toto Wolff speaks on the stewards decision from F1 Sao Paulo GP as he adds on hard racing and diplomacy ending on his side.
Mercedes’ Wolff was pretty open post the F1 Sao Paulo GP, especially regarding the stewards decision of the incident between Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Hamilton along with the hard racing between them and diplomacy ending on his side.
The stewards decided to not investigate the matter which naturally did upset Mercedes and Wolff. He did feel for them taking punches from all sides as no team on the receiving end will welcome the decisions, but he feels they should be on top of everything still.
Wolff refereed to the Mexico directors’ note of pushing a driver off but in Brazil, it happened almost like that which was overlooked. Regarding his friendly gesture, he noted that the TV cameras did show it but didn’t play the audio of the talk they had.
“I don’t want to claim anything on the stewards,” said Wolff to written media. “I think they have a difficult life anyway. And they are only there to lose, whatever decision they take, one team is going to be grumpy. In that respect, I don’t want to be in this chair. But in a certain way, when you’re taking punches all weekend, and then you have such a situation on top of everything, you’re just losing faith in a way.
“Whatever is in the director’s notes, we’re going to accept. I’m also OK if the director’s notes are going to be shredded and we just race hard like we did today, fine. But if the director’s notes say that you cannot push anybody off the track in Mexico, and then obviously that’s valid here too, and then you’re actually being driven off the track, it’s just not very consistent.
“My discussion with the race director was not broadcasted, but my reaction was. We will clear and feel we’ll discuss it behind closed doors,” summed up Wolff, who then pressed on about if Mercedes is targeted in a way and others being favoured. Even though he didn’t directly agreed to it, but did not that he isn’t going to be diplomatic anymore.
“I don’t want to moan here, because that is not how I see the sport,” started Wolff. “I think we’ve just had many, many punches in the face this weekend with decisions that could have swung either side, against us or for us. When always the decisions swing against you, it’s just something that I’m just angry about, and I will defend my team, my drivers to what comes. I’ve always been very diplomatic in how I discuss things.
“But diplomacy has ended today. Whatever the rules are, if the rules say that’s on, which I would love to, that it’s on, then that’s fine. I’m not discussing the principle of hard racing. Hard racing is super, and should be on. But not when it’s been clarified before that you can’t drive somebody off the track,” summed up Wolff.
Here’s Mercedes wanting right of review
Here’s the video link from F1 of Turn 4
Here’s Lewis Hamilton on a dummy on Max Verstappen at Turn 1
Here’s Mercedes and Red Bull with their initial reaction