Mercedes did not expect Red Bull Racing to appeal against Lewis Hamilton 's penalty following the incident with Max Verstappen at the British GP. Toto Wolff does not rule out that it was just a psychological game, but that will not sway his team at all. He said this on Friday afternoon after the first free practice.

"The stewards thought ten seconds was justified, we thought it was pretty harsh at the time. If you look at the comments afterwards, it was very polarizing, even with the comments from the experts. We as a team have our own perspective, but others may have a different perspective. It's not for me to judge," Wolff told Motorsport-Magazin.comamong others .

No oil on the fire

Instead of devoting much more time to it at the press conference, the Mercedes team boss actually wants to let the subject rest. Especially since the incident is from two weeks ago and this weekend's race in Hungary is on. "I don't want to start throwing oil on the fire, that only creates controversy. We need to de-escalate the situation, not increase the polarisation on social media." Lewis Hamilton was even called racist after the incident at Silverstone.

In the end, Red Bull did decide to appeal Hamilton's ten-second penalty. "We were surprised that they had asked for a review, also because you need new evidence for that. We couldn't imagine what that would be. But psychological games don't work with professionals. They will always deliver as well as they can."

Wolff wants de-escalation

However, Wolff understands that it is somewhat also good for the sport that opinions are somewhat divided here and there. " Formula 1 needs controversy, it can be entertaining. But it needs certain boundaries that we have to keep and respect. Sport should unite, not divide. So let's strive for de-escalation instead of stirring this up even more," the Austrian said.