Wolff: Great show on Sunday will offset closed race 'weirdness'

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes a great show produced by F1 in Austria will compensate for the "weirdness" of a race held behind closed gates.

This weekend, for the first time in its seventy-year history, due to the coronavirus pandemic, Formula 1 will race in front of entirely empty grandstands, with no fans present at the venue.

Such will likely be the norm throughout the summer as race promoters and the sport enforce stricy COVID-19 safety measures.

"I think we know what to do, I think we know that protecting our staff and everybody who attends is the main priority," said Wolff in an F1 vodcast.

"But equally, it’s new ground, we’ve never been in this situation. We’re talking a lot about bubbles, less interaction with the other teams, you guys [the media] and the fans, and that will be a new experience.

"F1 has always been able to take out the positives, and if we’re able to provide a great show on Saturday and Sunday I think that’s going to compensate for the weirdness."

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Wolff admitted that sitting out the first four months of the 2020 season was a disruptive experience given the preciseness and habits of his normal drill.

"It has been definitely surreal, and everybody who tells me that they love spending more time at home, I don’t quite believe it, because we’re in a fast-paced environment," he said.

"We work in some kind of frame, we know when we go racing, we know when we go back to the office, and we know when we go home. Suddenly it’s like pulling a plug out. I miss the competition."

However, the Austrian insists team bosses were not left twiddling their thumbs during the hiatus, as planning for the sport's future significant changes was very much on everyone's daily agenda.

"The elephant in the room is that with the 2021 cost cap kicking in, big teams and particularly Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, we need to adapt, we need to change processes, how we do things, how we develop, how we spend on innovation and R&D," he said.

"That has been a Mount Everest to climb, and that has been the project that has kept many of us very busy."

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