Mercedes right of review wasn’t to get Verstappen penalised - Wolff

Mercedes held a formal meeting with the FIA on Thursday after announcing earlier in the week its right to ask for a review of Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton’s battle on Lap 48 of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The German manufacturer felt that since new evidence came to light - Verstappen’s onboard footage was released to the public after not being available to the stewards on Sunday in Brazil - it had a strong enough argument for it to be looked at again.

A delayed decision was finally given on Friday, with the FIA rejecting Mercedes’ request to review the incident on grounds that the new evidence wasn’t significant enough.

Explaining why Mercedes’ requested asked for a review of the incident, Wolff said: “So you fight every single point and we still feel the incident … we don’t expect to gain anything from the right of review, to be honest, but it’s more about the principle and the philosophy, because if it stays that way it means overtaking from the outside is pretty much not possible anymore because it means the inside controls the corner completely.

“Now, that is anyway the case, but as it was before, when a car is next to you, you need to leave a space and now that’s not the case. So we just want to take it to the end, have a judgement on that and then adapt for the last few races if necessary and some of the drivers have actually expressed that same opinion, so that is why we are making the stewards take another look at it.”

With Verstappen and Hamilton already coming to blows on several occasions in 2021, Wolff is keen to avoid a repeat in the final three races of the season hence Mercedes’ right of review to seek clarity on racing conduct.

“Is it enough evidence or not to go to a review? I think it is, but it is clear that we may both have different viewpoints on that,” he explained. “It’s more the real racing consequences that it has, and I have a very strong opinion about that.

“So it is really important to understand what is on and what’s not on for the next few races, because we don’t want this championship to be decided by a highly controversial situation that may end up in the stewards’ room again with lots of polarisation afterwards.”

Wolff was answering questions in front of the media alongside rival team boss Christian Horner in the FIA press conference.

The stewards’ verdict broke midway through, allowing Wolff to give his immediate reaction.

“Completely expected,” he added. “I think we wanted to trigger discussion around it because probably it will be a theme in the next few races and I think that objective is achieved.

“We didn't really think it would go any further.”