June 19, (THEWILL) – In Formula One, spat over bouncing cars is boiling over, after Mercedes Team Principal, Toto Wolff, called competitors “pitiful.”
Wolff disputed with Red Bull’s Christian Horner and Ferrari’s Mattia Binotto, in a meeting with other team principals on Saturday, at the Canadian Grand Prix. While Horner believes it is unfair to penalise teams that have managed to regulate both porpoising and bouncing, following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the three are at odds on the FIA involvement.
Binotto is also thought by Mercedes to have raised procedural objections to attempts to make changes to automobiles at this point and Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, have been the most vocal about the issue, given that they are the most affected.
Wolff also chastised his competitors for prioritising competition over driving safety. He said: “This is a sport where you’re trying to keep a competitive advantage or gain, but this situation has gone too far. 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. 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.”
