adminMONTREAL. – Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has accused rivals of “pitiful” and “disingenuous” behaviour in the row over cars bouncing in Formula 1.
Wolff had a bust-up with Red Bull’s Christian Horner and Ferrari’s Mattia Binotto in a team principals’ meeting on Saturday at the Canadian Grand Prix. And afterwards he said they were guilty of “manipulations in the background”.
Binotto said the cars’ behaviour “needs to be improved… [But] it has to be done through the right process”.
Red Bull declined to comment.
The row comes against the backdrop of a controversial intervention from governing body the FIA on the matter, which followed drivers’ requests for it to to take at the previous race in Azerbaijan.
Wolff’s problem was with Horner’s position that it is wrong to penalise teams that have managed to control both bouncing and porpoising – two different but related matters – and with Binotto making what Mercedes regard as procedural objections to attempts to make changes to the cars on the matter.
Wolff’s drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have been among the most outspoken on bouncing because Mercedes are among the teams struggling with it most.
“This is a sport where you’re trying to keep a competitive advantage or gain it but this situation has gone too far,” Wolff said.
“All drivers – at least one in every team – have said they were in pain after Baku, that they have difficulty keeping the car on track or blurred vision.
“And team principals trying to manipulate what is being said in order to keep their competitive advantage and trying to play political games when the FIA tries to come up with a quick solution to at least put the cars in a better position is disingenuous and that’s what I said.
“I’m not only talking about the Mercedes – all of the cars suffered in some way or other in Baku and still do here. “The car is too stiff or the car is bouncing, whatever you want to call it. This is a joint problem we are having in F1. It’s a design issue that needs to be solved.
“We will have long-term effects that we can’t even judge and at any time this is a safety risk. Then coming up with little manipulations in the background or Chinese whispers or briefing a driver is just pitiful.” – BBC Sport
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter