Wolff: Ferrari team order may have opened up ‘a can of worms’

Wolff: Ferrari team order may have opened up ‘a can of worms’
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Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff believes Ferrari’s decision in China to swap the running order of its drivers early in the race may have set a risky precedent.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc overtook team mate Sebastian Vettel at the start of the race in Shanghai but was ordered to yield to the faster German after ten laps, to give Vettel an opportunity to bridge the gap with the front-running Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

Vettel failed to catch up with the Silver Arrows cars while Leclerc, as a result of letting his team mate through, eventually fell into the clutches of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and lost a position to the Dutchman during the race’s first pit stop rotations.

Wolff said he understood the motivation behind the Ferrari pit wall’s decision to swap its drivers, but insist

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Toto Wolff: At the moment realistically the Ferrari is at least 0.5s ahead

Toto Wolff: At the moment realistically the Ferrari is at least 0.5s ahead

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff agreed with Toro Rosso’s Franz Tost who predicts that Ferrari has a better car at the moment.

According to AMuS, Vettel‘s performance yesterday made other teams be a bit worried, especially Because Alfa Romeo Racing (who has a similar front wing concept like Ferrari) have performed well too.

The Toro Rosso Boss Franz Tost thinks, that copying Ferrari’s concept would be a waste of time.

That would take 3 to 4 months because the entire car would have to be rebuilt drastically. Mercedes drives a completely different concept. Who wants to convert from the Mercedes wing to a Ferrari wing, must change the rest of the car aswell. And that would take weeks to match everything. That could be championship decisive.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff agreed with Toro Rosso’s Franz Tost that Ferrari did a better job over winter:

“I see it like Franz. At the moment realistically the Ferrari is at least 0.5s ahead. Let’s see what happens next week. That will be important when more parts come on the car.”

If we have to change our philosophy, that means a fight back that will take weeks and months. But whatever happens, we will do our best”

“We didn’t put all out but Ferrari didn’t either. I think we need to look at the other concept (Ferrari) and decide whether to stay true to our philosophy, do we believe it will work out through the season or do we have to change.”

“We had a big regulation change and you see two different kind of concepts. And it looks like Ferrari have found the exact sweet spot there. First impression after 3 days, Ferrari is fast, faster than us.”