‘Netflix series in real life’ – Mercedes supremo Toto Wolff has full faith in the FIA and F1 over choosing substance over style.
For those (still) unaware, the 2021 F1 season ended in blockbuster fashion; Max Verstappen grabbing the world championship from the then-reigning champion Lewis Hamilton in the dying moments of the race in Abu Dhabi, and season.
This after FIA Race Director Michael Masi allowed cars between then-race leader Hamilton and Verstappen to un-lap each other during the Safety Car period, to facilitate ‘racing’ to determine the world champion.
Mercedes vehemently protested it, but it was all for naught, with the FIA rejecting the right to appeal.
Their team principal Toto Wolff still cannot stop talking about it, naturally, but instead of complaining, the Austrian says he trusts the FIA and F1 to deliver style over substance, in a bid to ensure this great sport does not turn into an entertainment spectacle like the WWE and its contemporaries.
“I would never want to put such things in [the media] and I would never say such things because at the end, we provide entertainment but entertainment needs to follow sport and not the other way around.
“The rules are the rules, the consistency of the application of the rules is important and no decision making should ever happen contrary to the rules just to spice up the action.
“We love Netflix and Drive to Survive. Stefano Domenicali is doing a phenomenal job in marketing the sport and Stefano, as a true racer, would have no interest in interfering into the racing just for the entertainment factor.
“So, I cannot judge the pressures of the race director but in any case, we are so credible as a sport because it is sport and it is not wrestling.”
