"And yet they cheated on the tire test": Fans react to Mercedes boss Toto Wolff's claims that integrity is more important than winning for the team

F1 fans did not spare Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff after he claimed that maintaining integrity in the sport was more important to him than winning titles.

The Austrian executive has been quite vocal recently about rivals Red Bull's dominance since the beginning of the 2022 season and especially their record-breaking performances in 2023.

Wolff claims that they want to challenge Red Bull the right way and not make a plea to change regulations to help them close the gap to the world champions.

Speaking with PlanetF1, the Mercedes team boss said:

"I think the interesting part of the journey is that you’re putting these words on a PowerPoint, but you need to live by the standards every day, whether you win or whether you lose. And we’ve had challenging moments. I think a reason why we won was no blame culture."

“I would give up a championship before I break the rules in an intentional way because reputation and integrity are all today. And it needs to start by myself, not blaming someone rather than blaming the process. So I think as a team we’ve done pretty well.”

F1 fans did not quite agree with the comments made by the Mercedes team principal as they took to social media, with one fan pointing out that the German team did the same when they had their private Pirelli tire test ahead of the 2013 season, saying:

"And yet they cheated on the tyre test but he didn't return any championships."

Here are some more reactions:

"They changed the regs by cutting the floor out and that was to stop us": Mercedes team boss on how F1 curbed their dominance

Toto Wolff stated that F1 changed the regulations to stop their dominance in the 2021 season, allowing Red Bull to close in and eventually pass them on the grid.

As per RacingNews365, the Mercedes team principal said:

"The 2020 season was a super dominant year for us, I think it was the best car we ever had. Towards the end of the season, they changed the regs by cutting the floor out and that was to stop us... But back in the day these regs were clearly targeted to reset the pecking order."

Red Bull's Max Verstappen ended Mercedes' run of eight straight Drivers' Championship titles in 2021 after winning the controversial final race in Abu Dhabi. Since then, the Silver Arrows have been far behind Red Bull, who claimed both titles in 2022 and are likely to do so again this year.