Wolff believes the fallout from last year’s Abu Dhabi controversy gave them the confidence to withstand any outside pressure for the race to finish under green flag conditions.
The safety car appeared late in the race after Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren stopped on track with apparent engine failure.
The marshals were unable to push the car because it was stuck in gear, and it took some time to get a tow truck from the other side of the track as it had to wait for a gap in traffic.
Meanwhile, with some leading cars in the pits and others not, and the cars not allowing the safety car to overtake while the crane was in action, it took driver Bernd Maylander several laps to get all the cars in line behind him and into the correct order
By then it was too late to resume the race, and he finished with a short sprint from the final corner.
Fans on the court made their reaction clear with boos and whistles. However, while rival team bosses questioned how events unfolded, Wolff was adamant that everything had been done by the book.
“Clearly, there are rules, and they’re written,” Wolff said. “And from my perspective, whether I’m traumatized in Abu Dhabi or not, those rules were followed to the fullest today.
“There was a car on the track, there were marshals and a crane out there. That’s why they didn’t let anybody get ahead of them.
“And then there wasn’t enough time to restart the race once all the cars had caught up. So if somebody’s not happy with the rules, and you want to have a big show and two laps of racing, and then chaos, I think I’m totally ready.
“But then we have to change the regulations. So I think we shouldn’t complain about anything that happened because those are the rules.”
He added: “I’m very pleased to see that there is a race director and teammates enforcing the rules against the pressure from the media and the pressure from the fans and everyone to break the rules.
“So at least Abu Dhabi in that sense gave the FIA stronger confidence to enforce the regulations.”
Toto Wolff, team principal and CEO of Mercedes AMG
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
Asked by Motorsport.com if race control could have red-flagged in order to ensure a green-flag finish, Wolff dismissed the suggestion.
“Why red flag the race? If someone is in a wall, if the track is blocked, you red flag a race because you can’t pass anymore. Something happened. Why do you red flag just because you want to have it. a one or two lap show?
“I think we change the regulations, and we discuss with the FIA, ‘we change the regulations, we want to have a really high last race lap’. I’m raising my hand for that. But it’s not what’s in the regulations today” .
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Wolff insisted he did not want to be seen as a driver of the change, which could be added to the agenda of a previously scheduled sporting regulations meeting at Monza on Monday involving team sporting directors and the president of the FIA, Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
“I don’t want to create a headline here that Toto wants to change the rules because racing sucks. I think we should all sit down and say is there something we can do better?
“But what happened today is in the regulation book, and that’s why it was applied. Would you have wanted to do a last lap with a bunch of cars on top of each other at the chicane? Yes, hell yes. good tv But…
“I think we have to say do we want a race to end under green? And then we reverse engineer it from there.
“So you can see with five or 10 laps to go, we have a safety car, let’s red flag it. And make sure we’re competing at the end. If that’s in the rules, fine. But there are much smarter people, the sporting directors, who will have some ideas.”
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