Mercedes Team Principal Defends His Actions Against Unfairly Punished Sainz

Monday, 04 December 2023 at 18:00

Mercedes's team principal, Toto Wolff, commented on the controversial and, as he called it, "unfair" penalty for Carlos Sainz, which he pushed for.

Scuderia Ferrari F1 driver Carlos Sainz received a penalty ahead of the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix race for having to change components on his car as a result of a highly disputed force majeure incident in FP1.

It was revealed that almost nobody had a problem with Ferrari changing their components, but Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff pushed for the penalty against the Spanish driver and his team as the rules prescribe.

Looking back at the incident, Wolff admitted that looking from the perspective of the 29-year-old driver, the penalty was "absolutely unfair."

"What happened to Carlos was absolutely unfair and me as a racer, I'm the first one to say that he didn't deserve the outcome. I think we should look at the rules."

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On the other hand, the team principal said he has the responsibility to push for his team even against his own values in order to provide the best chances of better results in the Championship, which can be worth a couple of million dollars. He explained

"As a Team Principal for rival team that is fighting for P2, I need to look at the regulations and at the full scope of possible actions of ourselves in order to finish P2 in the championship."

And it was not like Wolff came up with something new to harm his opponents. He basically only pushed for the fact that regulations have to be followed even though it was unfair in that particular situation.

"If the regulation says so, I need to act for the benefit of the team and 2,500 people. That will have a very big difference in bonuses, people would be free to act to the limit of the regulations."

It is also important to add that Mercedes snatched the second place in Constructors' Championship only by three points in the end, so Wolff's Las Vegas decision might have changed the Constructors' Championship result.

"If we lost the championship by five points because I have acted in sporting fairness, and the rules would have allowed me to actually penalise the car, I need to do this. And every other Team Principal will do it as much as it's unfair."

The Austrian explained having 2,500 people to look for made the arithmetics behind his actions very straightforward. He concluded:

"I need to decide, is it unfair for a rival driver? It is. But I have 2,500 people that I'm literally responsible for that pay mortgages and school fees. So it's a no-brainer"