Wolff slams 'pitiful' and 'disingenious' attitude of rival team bosses

Mercedes boss Toto Wolf called out in Montreal rival team principals for their "pitiful" and "disingenuous" behaviour regarding Formula 1's porposing issues.

Ahead of this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, the FIA introduced on the grounds of safety a technical directive that aims to define a metric that once applied will limit or hopefully eliminate altogether the high-frequency vertical oscillations of F1's cars.

The introduction of the measure could impact the field's competitive order, with teams perhaps gaining or losing from the mandatory set-up changes that will be imposed by the governing body.

Mercedes' drivers have been vocal about the tormenting physical effects of their car's bouncing and bottoming, but George Russell and Lewis Hamilton ramped up their concerns in Baku, which in turn encouraged the FIA to intervene.

But tensions between the Brackley squad and those teams that have managed to mitigate the porpoising phenomenon ignited in Montreal.

The first bone of contention between the teams and Mercedes came about as a result of the latter adding in Montreal a second stay to the floor of its W13, to rigidify the element, a change dictated and seemingly authorized by the FIA's technical directive, at least according to Mercedes.

But rival teams took exception with the German outfit's initiative, and questioned how Mercedes had managed to act so swiftly in the wake of the TA's publication, suspecting that it had perhaps had advanced notice of the TA.

With threats of protest looming and the floor modification delivering no improvement, Mercedes removed the component ahead of Saturday's running.

However, tensions flared up in a subsequent team principals' meeting at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where an angry Wolff took aim at his peers for their attitude regarding the FIA's efforts to solve F1's porpoising issue.

Read also:

• Horner: FIA well intended but tackling porpoising 'the wrong way'

Wolff reportedly told the assembly in no uncertain terms that the posture of certain teams on the matter was about gaining or preserving a competitive advantage to the detriment of safety, the Austrian contending that at least one driver in every team agreed that the physical effects of proposing had become unacceptable.

"This is a sport where you're trying to keep a competitive advantage or gain it," Wolff told the media on Saturday. "But this situation has clearly gone too far.

"All drivers, at least one in every team, have said that they were in pain after Baku, that they had difficulty in keeping the car on track or blurred vision.

"Team principals trying to manipulate what is being said in order to keep the competitive advantage and trying to play political games when the FIA tries to come up with a quick solution, to at least put the cars in a better position, is disingenuous. And that's what I said.

"I'm not only talking about the Mercedes: all of the cars suffered in some way or other in Baku, and still do it here. The cars are too stiff. The cars bounce or whatever you want to call it.

"We have long term effects that we can't even judge. But at any time this is a safety risk, and then coming up with little manipulations in the background, or Chinese whispers, or briefing the drivers, is just pitiful."

In Baku, Red Bull chief Christian Horner stated that Mercedes' drivers were exaggerating their concerns over porpoising in a bid to force a rule change by the FIA that would advantage their team.

But Wolff pointed to the complaints formulated by drivers from other teams, including by Sergio Perez at Red Bull, as proof that the concerns are valid.

"Of course, people will question whether my position is sincere or not," he added. "That's why I'm saying it's not only our problem.

"But if a Red Bull driver says you reach 300 km/h, which is when the issue comes up, and with these problems, ‘you can even lose your vision when braking or not being able to position the car properly’, as Perez said.

"Then you listen to the words of Sainz, you listen to what Ricciardo has said, we listen to what Ocon has said, Magnussen and both our drivers.

"This is not a team's problem. This is a design issue of ground effect cars that needs to be tackled before we have a situation, whatever it is.

"And it is not just by putting the cars up [raising the ride height], because putting the cars up doesn't solve the stiffness of the inherent aerodynamic characteristics."

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