Thinking of Verstappen

Wolff convinced: “If you get away with it …”

Toto Wolff sees a shift in the limits within Formula 1.

(Bild: APA/AFP/Andrej ISAKOVIC, Photoshop)

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has commented on the time penalties imposed on Red Bull driver Max Verstappen at the Mexican Grand Prix. The 52-year-old sees this as a turning point in Formula 1. Drivers will act more cautiously in future, but will still try to test the limit: "If you can get away with it, that's the new limit," said Wolff. 

"A driver will always push the limit," Wolff believes this is set in stone. Even the time penalties against Verstappen in Mexico could not change that. However, this is a clear signal that the boundaries have shifted, explains the Austrian after the intense race weekend. 

"You won't see anything like that again. A Max Verstappen pushing other drivers off the track in a duel ...", Wolff is certain. The drivers would have understood the message from the FIA stewards: "Braking late and driving the other car off the track is no longer possible, I think. That is no longer allowed. And that's good for racing."

Max Verstappen

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The 52-year-old explains that the drivers have internalized certain things anyway: "They know exactly what happens. The drivers know when someone lets the brakes come on too late and pulls them into the corner and pushes them over the edge. And they also know that you won't survive on the outside of a corner if you're not in front."

However, the FIA's new line would not mean that there would be no intense duels in future, as the Mercedes team boss emphasizes: "If you can get away with it, that's the new limit. There are now precedents. Other drivers have also received penalties in this race. So that's the benchmark now." 

Basically, this would mean enforcing certain rules that have recently been interpreted a little more loosely. "If the rules - how they are applied or how they are interpreted - allow a certain approach to racing, then a driver like Max will take advantage of that. But now there is a new interpretation and application of these rules," says the Austrian, who is quite happy with this.