Wolff: FIA penalties consistent, consequences a different story

While Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has backed the FIA race stewards’ consistency with race penalties following the clash between Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton, he wants discussions by rule-makers on 'certain incidents' having feared it had a direct impact on the battle for victory.

Mercedes fell victim to the first-lap tangle with Ferrari for the second time in the space of three races, following Sebastian Vettel’s accident with Valtteri Bottas at the start of the French Grand Pirx, with Raikkonen locking up his tyres to clatter into Hamilton which sent the British driver into a spin at Silverstone.

Both Mercedes and Hamilton questioned the Ferrari tactics having felt a pattern was emerging, while Ferrari were quick to shoot down any indirect accusations of misconduct.

Speaking after the race at Silverstone, Wolff has backed the penalties handed to Raikkonen, who was given a 10-second time penalty while teammate Vettel was only forced to serve a five-second time penalty in France, but feels incidents with ‘a massive outcome’ need to be looked at by teams and the FIA.

“I think there’s consistency on the penalties,” Wolff said. “They are what they are and there’s a certain arsenal of penalties the stewards have available, a five second penalty and a 10-seconds penalty or a drive-through, that’s what they have in the regulations and then they look at the precedents.

“What we need to discuss among all of us is that if certain incidents occur and they have a massive outcome in what’s happening, maybe around a race win and what the consequences will be that’s a different story.

“But on the penalty itself, they are like the rulebook says so it is what it is.”

Wolff described the second incident of one of his cars being hit by a Ferrari during an opening lap as ‘tiresome’ but was thrilled with Hamilton’s recovery driver from dropping to last place to battle back to second at the chequered flag in a frantic race won by Vettel.

“Not comfortable at all with the incident because its tiresome to be taken out in the first lap,” he said. “Even without the incident on Lap 1, we don’t know whether we would have won the race but I believe that Lewis and the car had the pace.

“We would have had a better chance of competing for the win, then it was made impossible. This is the feeling that remains.

“It was an amazing recovery from Lewis as he was dead last and ended P2 which was the maximum damage limitation we could achieve. It was a fantastic drive from him.”