Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has taken a swipe at rivals Ferrari, describing recent comments by the Italian team’s chief Mattia Binotto about the sport’s engine regulations as “another complete bullshit story.”
The Austrian
rejected Binotto’s claim that other teams—not only Ferrari—were affected by
technical directives last year which the Italian team blamed for their slump in
form.
Speaking late
Saturday ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, for which Mercedes
locked out the front row of the grid for the 65th time, Wolff was
clearly irritated by Ferrari’s claims.
“There was a clear
regulation on power units that was clarified in Austin on what we are allowed
to do and not, which was important,” said Wolff, referring to the 2019 United
States Grand Prix where Ferrari’s hot streak last year came to an end.
“But nothing that
was in any way surprising because if you comply to the regulations then that
was clear anyway.”
Wolff said it was “ironic”
that “we were pushed by some of our competitors to absolutely new levels”.
“It almost brought
us to burnout last year to develop and innovate in a way to be competitive on
the track.
“And here we go, I
think we have made a substantial jump in performance from 2019 to 2020 because
we needed to last year. And that is a little bit ironic for me.”
Suspicions
Ferrari had reeled
off six consecutive pole positions and three successive wins before the Austin
race last year, a streak that raised suspicion among rival teams that their
engines were enhanced in a way that contravened some technical regulations.
The directive in
Austin that was followed two weeks later by another in Sao Paulo focused on
other technical aspects of power units.
The result was that
Ferrari suffered an immediate drop in power output and speed, handing the
initiative in the championship to six-times champions Mercedes.
Lewis Hamilton went
on to complete his sixth title triumph and starts Sunday’s Hungarian race on
pole position ahead of his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas, the embryonic
championship leader. Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc
start on the third row.
Binotto on Friday
said the directives had cost his team performance and forced not only Ferrari
to adapt, but most other teams.
This provoked Wolff
who was adamant that his team has not, in any way, raised suspicions with the
performance of their car and power-unit.
Some observers have
noted, however, that white smoke rises sometimes from their cars.
Wolff admitted
Mercedes had an unresolved problem and responded: “You can see that when the
oil tank is filled up at the beginning, we seem to have an issue that oil gets
out of the chassis.
“We don’t know
where that comes from. It seems to be that when we fill it up to the top we
aren’t in control of how much escapes.
“We have seen it on
all the Mercedes engines and it’s something that we need to understand.”