Mercedes: Sanctions for next crash could impact drivers' title chances

Although the German manufacturer has not revealed any details of the 'deterrents' that it has put in place to prevent a repeat of their recent collisions, Wolff said ahead of the British Grand Prix that sanctions would include those that could have a negative impact on their title prospects.

Such a scenario could only mean either imposing strict commands to deliver a set finishing order or even resting the drivers for a race or two.

“You know how a driver is calibrated and what is important for a driver – and it is clear that if it would happen again, which is entirely in their hands, it is something that would have a negative outcome for their campaign,” said Wolff.

When asked specifically if the team might drop one of the drivers – either temporarily or permanently – Wolff said: “If I would answer the question we would go into detail… The drivers are the heroes, the stars of the show.

“I don't want to belittle them – and in answering your question there is a danger that I would do so. I don't want to go there.”

He added: “We decided we wouldn't want to elaborate on the rules in public because it is a very internal thing that should hopefully prevent such an incident to occur again.

“It is like a contractual detail. We are speaking about possible sporting, possible financial consequences and I wouldn't want to go into the detail.”

Final warning

Wolff was clear that the team had lost patience with the run of recent incidents – which included the wipeout at the Spanish Grand Prix, a first corner clash in Canada and the last-lap incident in Austria.

“We have had a culmination of accidents in the last couple of races that we somehow need to contain,” he said.

“This is the tricky bit because if you have a yellow card, will it change your way of tackling it or not? Because you know what happens with a second yellow card. It is a scenario that none of us wants to be in.”

And having said last winter that there was a risk of needing to change one of his drivers if the atmosphere between them started hurting the team, Wolff said that a response was needed from his drivers again now.

“I am pretty clear that whatever I say is raising expectations of what the reaction must be,” he said. “We've had a warning, this is the final warning. Let's consider it like this.”

He added: “Contact between teammates is something that is very difficult for the team internally and we've come to a point that we don't want to spend the days inside of the team analysing how much blame or how much fault we want to attribute to one of the drivers.

“To each of the incidents you will hear five people and six opinions – maybe some of us are biased in one direction or the other. At the end of the day, it is motor racing and this is part of the DNA of motor racing.

“We don't want to have them go around like puppies – this is not where we want to be. But let us please not have three shunts in five races. Let's get that ratio in a place that is acceptable for a team.”

No mission impossible

Wolff also said he thought it entirely possible for the pair to fight for the world title without there being crashes.

“If it would be a mission impossible, it means we wouldn't be seeing any clean racing out there,” he said. “It would mean every single overtake would end up in contact. No.

“There is clean racing out there and the great racing is hard racing, trying to pass and outsmart your competitors without the contract. Because it could potentially damage your own race.

"I believe, especially considering the skillset of those two, clean racing is possible and achievable.”

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