Wolff sends warning to McLaren: 'You expose yourself'

F1 News

Toto Wolff on McLaren's stratgey in Hungary
21 July at 20:15
5
  • Ben Stevens

Toto Wolff is a man who knows how to win a championship. His Mercedes team won eight constructors titles in a row. After McLaren put themselves in a difficult situation in Hungary, Wolff reflected on their decision and offered advice to the Woking-based team. 

Wolff gives advice to McLaren 

Speaking to GPblog and others after the Hungarian Grand Prix, Wolff was asked about the challenges he faced when Mercedes were consistenly challenging for race wins. "I think you can only manage situations when you eventually run into it," Wolff began; "You find yourself exposed. That's the first time that it happened to them. We only learned from our experiences.

"How we manage a situation where two drivers can win in the same team. And you like to collect the points without giving up the driver championship. I'm sure they're going to sit down and come up with what we came up with back in the day. The first rules of engagement. We didn't want to call it rules anymore. We said racing intent.

"I have no doubt that Andrea [Stella] and Zak [Brown] have very strong leadership. It's about defining that framework. What's happening in each of those possible situations."

Wolff draws comparison to 2017

Wolff compared McLaren's situation to the 2017 Hungarian Grand Prix, where Lewis Hamilton gave P3 back to Valtteri Bottas on the last lap. "Remember in Hungary we had the same situation with Hamilton and Bottas. We stood to our values. Although Lewis at that stage was in a championship, we did it. And I think this is what McLaren decided to do today. To do the right thing. Obviously, now they discuss with the drivers and what they do going forward."