Toto Wolff has come under heavy critism as team boss of Mercedes last week. Partly due to his many side activities with other teams in Formula 1, his role in the copying of the Mercedes car by Racing Point is being scrutinised by some followers. Christijan Albers thinks that Wolff may have overplayed his hand.
"I've never seen a listed company approve this", says Albers in the Formula 1 podcast of De Telegraaf in response to the fact that Wolff, as team boss of Mercedes, is also a shareholder at Aston Martin and Williams. His role in the riot around the Mercedes copy of Racing Point is also starting to work against him.
"You can now see that the media are increasing the pressure and that he is therefore doing damage control. Because why? He feels like this is going to backfire on him. If Racing Point is tackled, it also automatically means that Mercedes is tackled. Then I can tell you that you want the men in Stuttgart by your side and not against you."
Racing Point and Mercedes must be treated equally
The former F1-driver at Midland and Spyker (forerunners of the current Racing Point), among others, can't cope with the fact that this team is now getting away with it, as other teams have been tackled hard in the past.
"I already thought it was scandalous that Racing Point just has a Mercedes car from last year. Red Bull and Toro Rosso were opposed on this for years and the conclusion is that there are now 500 people at AlphaTauri and Racing Point is just getting away with a complete copy. If Racing Point is really found guilty, this may have been the wrong move for Toto, because it will come back to him".