Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is aware that the last and the current season has been really tough for his team. The governing body, FIA, sure has not made it easy for anybody. Currently, the F1 teams are racing in a cost-cap era. There are new rules every now and then being launched by the governing body making the lives of the drivers, engineers, and team principals difficult. The team that faced the worst impact on their car and performance has been Mercedes.
The Brackley team was ruling the grid in the turbo-hybrid era. However, for the last couple of years, the team has been struggling to find themselves in title contention. It understandably does not make Toto Wolff or anybody on the team happy. Albeit, Wolff has mentioned that he loves challenges, and it is an exciting learning curve for the team to build the perfect car. On Sunday, the Brackley team finished second with Lewis Hamilton steering the wheel at the Australian Grand Prix. Despite that, the Mercedes boss is not content with the work that the governing body FIA is doing in terms of regulating the motorsport.
Toto Wolff Is A Bit Confused With The Red Flag Rule
There was a moment of a few seconds when both the Mercedes drivers were leading the chart in Australia. But eventually, the defending champion, Max Verstappen, won the Grand Prix. There were a lot of interruptions to the race that kind of were responsible for shifting the momentum to another team. The main race saw three red flags shown on three different occasions. Firstly, it was Alex Albon’s fault for crashing his Williams car on lap 7. Then the last two happened right before the third last lap was about to start, and the final red flag was shown before the last lap.
Due to these interruptions, the momentum kept shifting away from Mercedes. Eventually, Lewis Hamilton got the P2 finish. But it could have been better if not for the red flags. Apparently, Toto Wolff mentioned that they are okay with the rules. But the only concern is that all of them can understand the terms and conditions. The Mercedes boss wonders, “Like what is a safety car, and when can a red flag come into the display?” If the rules are the same for every team, then the Mercedes boss is okay. But Wolff urges that they need to first understand these new rules to plan accordingly. Otherwise, Toto Wolff says, “the restarts are entertaining.”
Red Flag Interruptions Cost Mercedes The Race Win
George Russell started pretty well, but after the first interval kind of slowed down. Later, due to the second red flag, the young Mercedes driver ended with DNF. The young racer could have won the race if the GP did not have so many interruptions. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen did not have a good start.
But he did hold on to the last minute and eventually clinched yet another GP win. On the other hand, Sergio “Checo” Perez did not have a great time at the Australian Grand Prix. He had a DNF in Q1 in Australia. Later, he finished with P5 in the final round. After a GP win in Saudia Arabia, the Mexican was expected to continue his winning run.
