Wolff: Leclerc warning flag sets up drivers for more collisions

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes the black-and-white warning flag addressed to Charles Leclerc on Sunday will only incite drivers to take more risk, with more collisions therefore looming.

On lap 23 of yesterday's race, Lewis Hamilton appeared to have a run on race leader Leclerc as the two barreled down to the della Roggia chicane.

But the Ferrari driver defended his position by squeezing his rival off the track, a move frowned upon by the stewards who activated the black-and-white flag, warning the Monegasque that he had been put on notice.

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Wolff said that only Hamilton's avoiding action prevented a collision between the two drivers. But the Mercedes boss expressed his worries that Sunday's use of the black-and-white flag as set a precedent with potentially negative consequences.

"They [the stewards] are in a very difficult situation, to come up with the right decisions, that are not always clear cut," said Wolff after the race.

"The racing was very hard, maybe over the line - and Lewis I think was instrumental in not making it an incident.

"But at the end of the day, what do you do? You give a leading Ferrari in Monza a five-second penalty? Out of the question….because then we need a police escort out of here."

"There will be more cars touching, it will be more of a common practice," he added.

"In my opinion it's going to go to the point that it will end up again in a collision, and then we're going to bail out of it again, or crawl back. This is the modus operandi. Until then, we let them race."

Hamilton - who was on the receiving end of Leclerc's move - was equally disconcerted by the stewards' action and a prevailing lack of consistency regarding decisions.

"That's racing, I guess. I had to avoid colliding with him a couple of times. But that's how the racing is today," said the five-time world champion.

"We've constantly asked for consistency. There was a rule put in place and it wasn't abided by today.

"They used a different consequence. I don't really know why that was the case. I guess the stewards woke up on a different side of the bed."

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