Toto Wolff blasted rival team bosses who have taken a stand against the FIA's attempts to reduce porpoising on 2022 cars. Mercedes boss sees situation as political game
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff didn't spare rivals any criticism when getting into the subject of FIA and quiques. The body has announced measures to try to control porpoising on cars, such as a limit on vertical oscillations, but the potential mid-season regulation change ended up displeasing Red Bull, which took public criticism with the decision.
In an interview over the weekend of the Canadian Grand Prix, Wolff accused rival team bosses of dishonesty for implying that the change is to benefit Mercedes, one of the teams that suffers most from the car's quirks. The situation came into sharper focus after Lewis Hamilton complained of back pain after the Azerbaijan GP.
"This is a sport where you try to maintain a competitive advantage or win, but the situation has clearly gone too far. Every driver, at least one in every team, talked about being in pain in Baku, having trouble keeping the cars on track or blurred vision. And the team bosses try to manipulate what is said to keep the competitive edge, and to try to play political games with the FIA when it tries to come up with a solution to put the cars in a better position is dishonest," Wolff attacked.
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2022 is the year that marks the first season with the new Formula One regulations, considered by many as the most significant technical revolution in the history of the category, with the return of the ground effect seeking to reduce the turbulence generated by the cars to create more competition. Wolff believes there is a problem to be solved, and regrets the attitude of other teams behind the scenes.
"I'm not just talking about Mercedes here, all the cars suffered in one way or another in Baku, and they still suffer here. The cars are very stiff, or the cars bounce, as you prefer to say, but the fact is that it is a joint problem that we are having in Formula 1. It's a fundamental design problem that needs to be solved. We have long-term effects that we can't even judge. At any time it's a safety risk. Coming up with little behind-the-scenes manipulations or 'bribing' the drivers is unfortunate," he followed.
"Of course people will question whether my position is sincere or not. What I'm saying is that it's not just our problem, not just one team's problem. The problem in the design of the ground-effect cars needs to be solved before we have a situation. And it's not just by raising the cars, because it doesn't solve the rigidity of the inherent aerodynamic characteristics," he concluded.