Wolff warns pressuring Stewards could hinder future decisions
- Published on 09 Jun 2019 23:58
-
- By: Fergal Walsh
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff believes applying pressure and criticism to the Stewards could hinder their decision making in the future.
Controversy emerged from the Canadian Grand Prix when Sebastian Vettel was denied victory after he was handed a five-second time penalty for re-joining the track unsafely ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
MORE: Canadian GP: Hamilton wins following Vettel penalty
Vettel was quick to hit out at the Stewards post-race, stating that he hopes fans return to the race after the judgements of the officials.
While Wolff admits that Mercedes would like to win cleanly and without any messy disputes, the Austrian has encouraged people to not lash out at the Stewards following their settlement in Montreal.
"It's clear that you want to win on the track, in a clean fashion," Wolff said. "Situations like this create a lot of controversies. My view on the incident is that it's very difficult for Stewards to interpret regulations so that everyone is satisfied.
"On that particular incident, you could put 60-40 on both sides. But what we must not do is put the Stewards under pressure to come up with decisions in the future.
"We need consistent decision making from the Stewards and we need to support them in their objective to reach that. Sometimes it goes for you, sometimes it goes against you."
Wolff: Encourage harder racing for 2021
Wolff added that he thinks the Stewards acted fairly in accordance with the sporting regulations regarding wheel-to-wheel racing.
However, he suggested that it is something that should be looked into for the 2021 regulations that are set to see a major shift in the sport.
"I think the penalty was according to the rules," he said. "The Stewards acted according to the rules. If we are not happy with the rules because we like harder racing, count me in.
"Then the Stewards will take a different decision because the rules are different. Let's look at the rules so that we get them right for 2021. We can encourage hard racing and then the verdict could be a different one."
3
Replies (3)
Login to replyRam Samartha
Posts: 1,172
If you don't put some pressure on the stewards they are going to continue to make crap decisions. Of course Toto would say this. Any team boss with a win on the line would say the same.
motorthread
Posts: 33
The financial reward for a victory is so huge that any business (or in this case, Team) would be negligent if it didn’t pursue every single opportunity to gain an advantage. It is up to the FIA to amend the rules to prevent these incidents from occurring.
I would also suggest penalising teams that call for a stewards enquiry that proves to be a racing incident to encourage them to just get on with the racing.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Don't you talk, Toto. You'll do the same in a heartbeat. If you can use team orders on another team, you can pressure stewards to rule in your favour.