Toto Wolff on amendments to the regulations

      Team principal of Mercedes Toto Wolff warns the FIA and Formula 1 against drastic changes in the rules…

      Toto Wolff: “We need to consider the accident of Oliver Berman exactly as it was. It’s a misjudgment of the situation, like not braking in a corner where you need to brake. And while driver safety is our top priority, there are many brilliant races happening in the world that we all love very much.

      I love the ‘24 Hours of Le Mans’. I sit up all night watching the timing screen, but hypercars take corners 30 or 40 kilometers an hour faster than GT3 cars. The speed difference is huge. We have seen critical situations and major accidents between cars of two different classes.

      I remember not sleeping all night when Mike Rockenfeller crashed into a GT car at night, underestimating the speed difference. I remember Alan McNish going off the track. I remember an accident a year or two ago in the ‘Porsche’ corners due to a misjudgment by one of the drivers. And we still love these races; this series exists for that reason.

      We watch races on the ‘North Loop’ of the Nürburgring. I don’t know who among you has seen this; obviously, we had a tragic event, but one of the charms of the ‘North Loop’ is that a factory GT3 car competes against a private Volkswagen Polo with amateur drivers at night, in the rain. And even the best Formula 1 drivers in our world love this sport with all the dangers it brings. When you look at the WEC in Imola this weekend, the lap time difference between prototypes and GT cars was over 10 seconds.

      Let’s focus on those two priorities I mentioned earlier and make the sport better.

      Can our sport be safe? No. But we can reduce risks in specific situations, like rain or something else, keeping in mind that we are the guardians of the sport and are responsible for the sport, for the opportunities it has given us all, instead of looking at the pros or cons of changing or not changing certain rules.”