'You couldn't take wing off with a baseball bat now!'

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Toto Wolff has laughed off the suggestion the 'T-wing' on the Mercrdes W08 is unsafe after the team was forced to strengthen it ahead of qualifying following a Friday breakage.

The controversial aerodynamic device broke off Valtteri Bottas' car during Friday practice, with the following Max Verstappen collecting the debris and damaging his Red Bull RB13. It is the second event in succession Mercedes has suffered a failure.

Drawing the ire of Christian Horner, who called on the devices to be banned on the grounds of safety, Mercedes was instructed by the FIA to prove it had made definitive changes to the device to ensure it doesn't break off again, with Wolff confirming it had passed inspections.

"We fixed the problem, it's been strengthened. You couldn't take it off with a baseball bat now, so it should be okay."

Touching on Horner's criticism after he told Crash.net that he doesn't expect FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting to take advantage of a 'good opportunity' to ban the 'wing', Wolff said there is little surprise he is trying to rid the sport of the device.

"It's clear that Christian needs to do that because you're trying to take parts off from other cars that function and it's perfectly understandable"