Did Mercedes dial back their engine in 2014 for tactical advantage? Wolff denies

A new revelation from Paddy Lowe, former technical director at Mercedes, has caused controversy in the Formula One world. Lowe claims that the team deliberately had the engine purposefully dialed back in 2014 at the behest of team boss Toto Wolff, in order to gain a tactical advantage. Wolff, however, denies this resolutely.

As a guest on the Formula 1 Beyond the Grid podcast last week, Paddy Lowe, who was technical director at Wolff's team at the time, told us that during the 2014 season, the team deliberately sandbagged the power unit's output in order to keep the FIA in the dark about the Silver Arrows' large lead over the rest of the grid, and to avoid a possible rule change.

Lowe explained how he was instructed by Wolff not to show too much of the Mercedes engine's power: "During Q1 and Q2 of qualifying we never turn up engine. We drove those in a sort of idle mode. Then a debate would arise about how far we should turn up the engine for Q3. I would hear in my ear from Toto: 'That's too much, that's too much.'"

Wolff disagrees

Wolff denied this story when asked about it during the team bosses press conference on Friday. " think Paddy must have been in a different place that I was", he stated. "There is no such situation that you turn back an engine just to have regulations tweaked in your direction."

Wolff continued: "We were very competitive in 2014 and I think everybody could see that. It was the start of a regulatory environment that wouldn't have been changed anyway. So, yeah, maybe Paddy had that impression."