Wolff advocates for pivotal team strategies at McLaren F1, despite overall disadvantages looming for the team.
Team management directives at McLaren F1 continue to stir discussions in the paddock, following that first lap at Monza where Oscar Piastri attacked Lando Norris.
Andrea Stella, the team principal, affirmed that the so-called ‘Papaya rules’ would be reevaluated, but what that really means remains to be seen (see our article).
Managing tensions between teammates? Toto Wolff, the former head of Mercedes F1, knows what that entails. How does he suggest balancing realistic championship management with granting drivers freedom?
“As a racing team fighting at the front, you are caught between a rock and a hard place because, on one hand, they are ‘racers’ as we are. We want to ensure the best person wins, but on the other hand, when it starts to become dysfunctional and impacts team performance, how do you react?”
“The team always loses, because if you freeze positions and have team orders, it might not be what our racer’s soul wants to do, but the rational side must prevail.”
“Ultimately, you don’t want to lose a championship by three or five points that you could have easily won. So it’s very difficult to walk this tightrope and there is no universal truth on how to manage this situation.”
Toto Wolff would be wary of giving any advice to Andrea Stella: his counterpart will know how to handle the situation at Woking…
“No one understands the sport better than Andrea. He has seen all this unfold before his eyes numerous times at Ferrari.”
But the Mercedes F1 boss suggests that McLaren will change its doctrine after the first-lap incident at Monza, when Oscar Piastri overtook Lando Norris…
“Andrea has this racer’s soul who does not want to do it [issue team orders] and wants to let them race, but I think they will come to a conclusion after this race: how are we going to manage this? We asked ourselves that too. And that’s when we started to introduce engagement rules, then we changed the wording to talk about ‘intentions’ because the word ‘rules’ was too harsh for the drivers.”
For Rosberg, the situation is detrimental to Norris
McLaren F1’s hesitations appear to currently benefit Max Verstappen in the drivers’ championship.
This is also the view of Nico Rosberg, the 2016 World Champion, who continued his direct criticism of McLaren F1’s strategy.
“We learn that Lando thinks Oscar crossed the line during the turn 4 battle. I’ve always thought he would not see it as fair and just. There will be heated discussions in the McLaren motorhome. Even though for me, Oscar left space and raced fantastically.”
“It’s very difficult to manage. The line is thin. You write these rules, but did Oscar cross the line, in terms of ‘Papaya rules’?”
“We have two number one drivers because that is the very essence of McLaren, which goes back a long time. Andrea is executing this plan, but it’s Lando who suffers.”
Could it be that McLaren F1 fears taking risks, as otherwise demonstrated by the conservative two-stop strategy at Monza?
“Hard to say. At Monza, they were caught off guard. You could not have predicted that Ferrari would manage to win.”
“Risk aversion? No, they let their drivers battle fiercely! They fought wheel to wheel and Lando nearly spun out in his battle with Oscar.”
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Wolff Signals Time for McLaren F1 Team Shift Wolff Signals Time for McLaren F1 Team Shift
