Toto Wolff refutes ‘correlation’ between Max Verstappen 2021 actions and Austria

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff speaking with the media

Toto Wolff disagrees with Andrea Stella that Max Verstappen’s antics in Austria were a consequence of F1’s race stewards “not” taking a stand during his 2021 title fight with Lewis Hamilton.

Three years ago Verstappen went wheel-to-wheel against Hamilton for the World title, the two trading blows in the standings and on the track.

Toto Wolff doesn’t agree with McLaren’s assessment

One of their battles played out at the Brazilian Grand Prix where Hamilton, running second to Verstappen, used DRS to make a play for P1 only for Verstappen to open his steering wheel and force Hamilton wide.

Red Bull were quickly on the radio to then race director Michael Masi saying that was “all about letting them race”. Masi decided it did not need to be investigated, calling the move “one of those”.

Fast forward to Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix and Verstappen was adjudged to have caused a collision on track, this time that driver being Norris.

The McLaren stuck to his line around the outside of Turn 3, the two making contact and both suffering punctures. Verstappen was penalised for the contact but that was of little comfort to Norris or McLaren.

Norris’ team boss Stella blamed 2021’s attitude toward the rules for Sunday’s drama.

“They have come back today because they were not addressed properly in the past when there were some fights with Lewis,” he told Sky F1.

“That needed to be punished in a harsher way like this. You learn how to race in a certain way, which we can consider fair and square.”

It was an opinion he reiterated during his briefing with the media including PlanetF1.com.

“In every kind of human dynamics,” he said, “if you don’t address things as soon as you introduce competition, as soon into introduce a sense of injustice, these things escalate.

“I think either there was an incomplete job, let’s say, that comes from the past. And there’s a legacy that as soon as there was a trigger, it immediately became a case that escalated.

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“This episode today should be taken as an opportunity to tighten up, to clamp the boundaries and in fairness enforce some of the rules which are already in place.

“But we need to be very clear that these rules cannot be abused in a way that then leaves a margin to do a couple of times the same manoeuvre, and you know what, at the third time, there’s going to be an accident, of course even statistically there’s gonna be an accident.”

He added: “We don’t want to see another 2021. I thought that was not a good point in Formula 1 racing. It might have been entertaining, but not for good reasons.”

That was put to Wolff in his media briefing, however, the Austrian says he does not see a “correlation” between the two.

“I don’t think you can take this conclusion,” Wolff said. “It’s been so long in a way from our side.

“We are in a different place today, and I think he is. It takes two to tango. I haven’t seen Lando and Max’s race to be honest. I haven’t seen how all of that came about.

“I first need to watch it before I have an opinion but I wouldn’t see that as a big consequence of 2021 not having been managed well to what happened in 2024. I don’t think they have a correlation.”

Bringing his RB20 home in fifth place, Verstappen extended his lead at the top of the Drivers’ Championship to 81 points ahead of Norris.

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