Toto Wolff compares Interlagos clash to Silverstone smash

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Wolff compares Interlagos clash to Silverstone smash

Wolff believes the same regulations should have been applied equally in the two instances

Sam Hall

Saturday 20 November 2021 10:30

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff believes the same regulation that punished Lewis Hamilton in Silverstone 'could have been applied' against Max Verstappen in Brazil.

The FIA on Friday denied Mercedes' petition for a right to review the incident that saw Hamilton forced off the track by Verstappen in Brazil.

Speaking moments before the verdict was announced, Wolff compared the near-miss to the Silverstone coming together that saw Verstappen hit the wall at Copse corner with a 51G impact.

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“I think the outcome in Silverstone was a much more severe one and nobody liked the pictures. But the philosophical question remains the same," said Wolff.

"If the outside driver doesn’t cede room then they collide. And they would have collided in turn four at Interlagos if Lewis wouldn’t have opened up and run even wider.

“I think the regulation that can be applied is the same."

Silverstone and Interlagos "incomparable"

After Wolff appeared to back comments made by McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl that the consequence of an incident should not dictate the punishment, Christian Horner claimed the two instances were "incomparable".

Faced with his comments from Silverstone whereupon he had labelled Hamilton, the driver on the inside, as "amateurish" and "reckless", Horner was asked to explain his apparent contradiction when describing it as "hard racing" when Verstappen held the inside line.

“I don’t think it is a contradiction because you’ve got two different corners, two different circumstances, two different car positionings and I think that at Silverstone you’ve got a gravel trap and a wall," explained the Red Bull team principal.

"The overspeed that was at Silverstone was incomparable with what there was at Interlagos.

“I think that you could see at Interlagos that both drivers have braked late, they have arguably out braked each other, but at no point was Lewis in a position to turn into the corner as Max was at Silverstone.

“Of course, the difference at Silverstone was that we had a driver end up in hospital, we had a car destroyed, we had an engine destroyed and a driver eliminated from the race.

“This was a racing incident.

“Lewis won the grand prix, he was the quicker driver in the quicker car on the day so there was no consequence and I think that the two incidents you cannot compare, because then we can go back to Monza, we can go back to numerous other incidents and you have to treat each one in isolation."