Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Wolff denies Mercedes intentionally ran tyres low

Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff insists his team did not intentionally run lower tyre pressures than recommended by Pirelli at the Italian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton's left rear tyre was found to be 0.3 PSI below the specified minimum pressure on the grid ahead of the race at Monza, while Nico Rosberg's was 1.1 PSI below the minimum. The FIA investigated Mercedes after the race but cleared the team, saying it was above the minimum pressures when the tyres were taken out of their blankets and pledging to clarify when it will check pressures in future.

When asked for a response to a suggestion Mercedes could have deliberately set the pressures low enough so they would drop to the ideal pressures by the start of the race, Wolff replied: "I can absolutely rule that out.

"We have worked the whole week after Spa with Pirelli to find solutions in order to make those tyres safe. We were very much part of trying to guide them on minimum tyre pressures and minimum camber which we already had on our car at Spa, so I can rule out that we would be the ones who were trying to gain an advantage in a way which is absolutely unscientific and uncontrollable.

"How do you want to measure, in which time a tyre pressure, how much a tyre pressure drops when you disconnect it [from tyre warmers] and why would you have it only on one tyre and then discrepenancy between two cars?"

And Wolff says Mercedes followed normal protocol in terms of setting its tyre pressures and ensuring they were legal before the race.

"We followed the procedure established with Pirelli which was to have the tyres in the blankets and then check the pressures together with Pirelli. The pressures were well above the minimum because safety is important for us. the tyres on the car for whatever reason, maybe because the tyres cooled down, a different pressure was found on one of the tyres. It was a tiny discrepancy."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.