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Mercedes think leaving regulations alone will strip Mercedes advantage

Mercedes think "leaving regulations alone" will strip Mercedes advantage

13-06-2019 15:04
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Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has made the case that the best way to let other teams catch up to the Silver Arrows is to keep the current regulations stable, rather than changing them as other people have suggested.

After five straight years of winning both titles, Mercedes are again running away with both championships, with the German team winning all seven races and finishing one-two in the first five of them. Lewis Hamilton leads the drivers' championship with five wins, followed by teammate Valtteri Bottas with two wins.

Discussing the new regulations for 2021, Wolff argues one way of letting other teams catch up is by not changing the rules too much in two years' time.

“The default reaction in the past, when a team or big teams were running away with championships has been to change the regulations," the Austrian was quoted by RaceFans.

"Because you believe that by changing the regulations others may catch up. And I think that exactly the opposite is the case; if you leave the regulations alone – which is counter-intuitive – eventually performance converges.”

As an example, Wolff pointed out that the power units, whose regulations have been largely unchanged since 2014, have become really close in performance this season. 

“You can see that in the power unit regulations that have been stable for a while and I think that if we leave the chassis regulations alone then eventually more teams will be closer together.

“It is very difficult, from our position, to be credible and to be heard because people think that we want to keep the rules as they are in order to maintain our advantage. Whilst the opposite is actually the case – leave it alone and performance will converge.”

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