Toto Wolff disagrees with his McLaren F1 colleagues who say Red Bull has pushed the boundaries of sporting ethics in Singapore.
As a supposed farewell gift to Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing’s sister team RB F1 asked the Australian to pit late in the race in order to set the fastest lap of the race.
The 35-year-old was not eligible for the bonus point as he was outside the top 10, but the feat denied Max Verstappen’s championship rival Lando Norris the bonus point.
“It’s disappointing from a sporting point of view,” McLaren CEO Zak Brown said of the alleged on-track collusion between the two Red Bull-owned teams.
“There should be no A and B teams or sporting collusion on the track. And that’s exactly what happened. Hopefully this point won’t make the difference in the end.”
But when asked about accusations from Brown and McLaren boss Andrea Stella that there had been a lack of sportsmanship, the Mercedes F1 boss disagreed.
“I think we probably need to use every strategy we have,” responded Wolff, usually a staunch ally of McLaren and a fierce critic of Red Bull.
“I don’t think it was an unsportsmanlike action. Not at all.”
“Champions can come down to a point, and what they (Red Bull) did was within the rules, the drivers weren’t unfair to each other on track – Ricciardo just did the fastest lap.”
“No problem.”
