“I think it’s pretty normal,” Toto Wolff deems the political scraps between teams in 2022 ‘business as usual’
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From left to right: Christian Horner, Toto Wolff, and Mattia Binotto
There was a fair amount of conflict between Formula 1 teams in 2022, especially around the ‘porpoising’ issue and the cost cap breach penalties. Toto Wolff’s Mercedes were among the worst-affected teams by ‘porpoising’ (or bouncing), and the issue came to a head at the Azerbaijan GP. After that, the FIA brought out a technical directive regarding the issue, something Red Bull and Ferrari were fiercely opposed to.
This TD was enforced after the summer break, and suddenly, Mercedes seemed to have considerably improved performance in comparison to Ferrari, who had been far ahead of them despite also being affected by proposing. Red Bull never had that issue, so they were not bothered by it. However, they did not like the intervention and the future rule changes for 2023 (that ostensibly helped Mercedes), and many other teams did not either.
The year’s second big controversy came when Red Bull were found guilty of breaching the cost cap by around 1.6%, which would be 0.37% without an accounting error. They were penalized $7 million and had their wind tunnel time reduced by 10% (accounting to 7 percent actual reduction). But some felt this was not enough of a punishment, but even apart from the punishment, there was massive backlash against the team.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown even wrote a letter to the FIA saying that the cost cap breach constituted ‘cheating’ – a letter that he still stands by. To the outsider, it would seem all is not well in F1, but when asked by Motorsport.com on his thoughts on the teams’ rallying for or against each other on different issues, Toto Wolff thought it was ‘normal’.
Toto Wolff: ‘Fighting’ between teams about protecting ‘your own structure’
Teams in Formula 1 have competing interests – what may be good for one team is not necessarily good for another. The porpoising verdict was in the interest of safety, but it also seemed to have helped Mercedes while hurting Ferrari. The cost cap breach was far too much for Red Bull, but not enough for the other teams. Toto Wolff thinks it was all ‘business as usual’ in 2022.
Mercedes’ team principal said: “It’s about protecting your own structure and I think we all do that, trying to stay ahead or to protect, or in a way to understand where the politics go. I think it’s pretty normal. I don’t think there were any more games or less games. Everybody kind of lives to their own standards. I think it was pretty much business as usual, I would say.”
The same things will happen in 2023 with any other controversial rule change or event – it is only normal. Next year, there is likely to be even more of it if Mercedes and Ferrari finally catch Red Bull. Ferrari possibly had a lot of performance ‘in hand’ that they were unable to show after the summer break, and the Silver Arrows have been improving constantly. It’s set to be an exciting season.
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)