Furious Toto Wolff lashes out FIA & rivals

Mercedes AMG F1 team principal Toto Wolff hints that the FIA might have been ‘pressured’ to penalize Lewis Hamilton during 2021 Brazilian GP Qualifying.

Toto Wolff says the FIA has suddenly changed its “modus operandi”, when they decided to disqualify Lewis Hamilton from Friday’s Qualifying due to a DRS infringement.

“I think how the process went from telling us, discovering that we’ve marginally failed the test, we are speaking 0.2 of a millimetre, to not allowing this to be fixed, like the normal protocol would be, but rather it being reported to the stewards, the bullet was out of the gun,” said Wolff.

“I think that put the stewards in a very difficult situation to come up with the right judgement. Until late this afternoon, we believed it was okay, because the wing was damaged,” the Austrian said.

“One side was okay, the middle was okay, the right side was not okay – that means we actually had a performance disadvantage. We though that, in consideration of all these aspects, the FIA would say there was damage, and therefore we were not in breach of the regulations.”

The Austrian explained that the FIA allowed Red Bull to fix their rear wing at the Mexican Grand Prix without any penalties, but Mercedes was not allowed to do the same in Brazil.

“We had a parc ferme situation in Mexico, I believe it was, where during qualifying sessions work on the rear wing was permitted.

“So no difference in terms of parc ferme situation – I don’t think with stewards present.

“This time it was judged, and this is the declaration or in the result of the stewards, that if it would have happened during the session, we would have been allowed to fix it, but not at the end of the session.

“Both are parc ferme situations, so you can ask why during the session and not at the end of the session.”

Wolff and Mercedes looking for revenge

Wolff then hinted that something influenced the FIA to change the way they approach these situations, and Mercedes will in turn start looking at similar issues “with a more strict eye”.

“Something went against the modus operandi these last 24 hours, which was either under pressure from other stakeholders or just different.

“If the modus operandi is different now you maybe need to look at others also with a more strict eye and severe eye.

“I can tell you that, in the next few races, we’re going to look at every single race tape that’s going to fall off a car and ask questions.

“In a way there was a gentleman’s – if such thing as gentlemen’s agreement exists in Formula 1 – because there ain’t no gentlemen – then now it doesn’t anymore.

“You have no millimetre of leniency of fixing things on a car: if it’s broken, it’s broken, you can’t touch it, and this is how it’s going to go this year.”

Toto and Lewis Shocked by Disqualification

“When we were reading disqualified, which honestly, I couldn’t believe. I thought that [sporting director] Ron Meadows was making a joke when I saw the WhatsApp.

“So strange things happen. But you have to take it on the chin, and the last 60 minutes of motor racing, from Valtteri [Bottas] and from Lewis, brought all the enjoyment back with all of frustrations that happened before.”