Wolff and Ecclestone still at odds over engine supply

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Formula One commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff have admitted that they still argue over the question of whether Mercedes should have supplied power units to its chief rivals Red Bull.

Last year Red Bull threatened to leave Formula One when it briefly fell out with current engine suppliers Renault, but was unable to find a replacement. Ecclestone pressed Mercedes to step in and make its power units available to Red Bull, but Wolff had quickly ruled out any such arrangement.

"Bernie always wanted to have competition between the teams. That was his main objective. Our main objective was to have the best possible team," Wolff told the official Formula One website this week.

"If I had been in Bernie’s shoes I would have wanted the most sensational fight for the titles. I always accepted that, but I could not follow that path.

"Running a team means you very much have to look out for yourself, for your team. Running Formula One you naturally want to have the most competitive and entertaining platform - which can translate into very different objectives."

"In the end we understood each other: if we find the right agreement between Red Bull and Mercedes - and that was not only limited to F1 - then there could probably be a chance. So we tried to pull something together - but alas, it never happened."

Ecclestone said that it was a topic they still continually discussed to this day, with the pair talking on the phone about this and other matters most days during the season.

"For me still the topic of Mercedes not supplying Red Bull with an engine - we never did, and probably never will agree on that," said Ecclestone.

"Yes, I understand the reasons - I would have reacted just like them in their shoes," he conceded.

"If I were to run Mercedes I would not have given them an engine. I simply wouldn’t have given the strongest competition something that would enable them to beat me. "Toto was in a very difficult position back then, because maybe - in his heart - he would not have minded, but he had to look at what’s the best for his team - and him personally.

"That is team perspective. In my position [overseeing F1 as a whole] I saw it differently.

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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.