Wolff: We are forced to trust Ferrari

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has confessed that everyone in Formula One will be forced to trust the honesty and integrity of Ferrari in regards the legality of their power unit, following a German Grand Prix in which the extreme power of their engine was clear.

This past weekend proved to be a positive one for Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton would go on to win the GP at Hockenheim, but it only happened after Sebastian Vettel crashed out of the race due to the weather conditions after showing incredible speed previously, particularly on the straights.

Ferrari's speed was so clear to see that there have been speculative musings about whether their power unit is in line with regulations, but Wolff says that people will simply have to trust the team if nobody is willing to investigate.

"I think it's highly complex technology," he said at an AMG event this week.

"If someone -- and I'm not saying somebody is, because the fact is I don't know, we are not in anybody's engine, we are not in anybody's bodywork -- but if someone were prepared to risk his reputation then there is very little possibility to police that.

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"You need to rely on the integrity of people and organisations, and we do that. At the end of the day with all the scepticism and paranoia that has always existed in Formula One we rely on the integrity of the FIA, we rely on the integrity of our competitors, because that's the only way we can go racing on a Sunday.

Wolff does not suggest there is anything illegal going on at Ferrari, and insists that Mercedes will use the power of their competitor to learn and improve themselves.

"I think what we've seen is that on racetracks that should have suited us -- Silverstone and Hockenheim -- they had a car that was very good on the chassis side and a power unit that was the benchmark in the field," Wolff continued.

"The only reaction we can have to that is not to say 'What are they doing?' but the reaction should be 'What can we do in order to accelerate our own development program?'.

"I tell you, my mindset is really that everybody is respecting the integrity [of the regulations] because that is the only way we can go racing. If you doubt that, then the whole sport would have a problem, and I don't [doubt it]."