SK Exclusive: Mercedes' Toto Wolff won't judge anyone driving 'a car that is maybe on steroids'

Mercedes chief Toto Wolff prefers not to judge the situation where the drivers would pay the price for a team being penalized for exceeding the budget caps. The Austrian, however, felt it would be unfair if a driver had an advantage with superior tools due to an extra budget available to win a championship.

Asked by Sportskeeda if it was fair for a driver to pay the price for the team's finances being mismanaged, Wolff replied:

“I will tell you, I don’t wanna be in the shoes of judges. To judge whether the driver is driving their guts out in order to be on top of the decisions the team takes, that they are not involved in. But still, at the end, receiving a car that is maybe on steroids. So phew such a tough call and I wouldn’t want to make a judgement call and to be honest, my thinking isn’t so far.”

The row over the budget cap, along with speculation that Red Bull might have potentially exceeded it in the 2021 season, has cast a shadow over Max Verstappen's maiden title. While the speculation has witnessed ample rumors without proof, the subject clouds the Dutch champion's maiden title as he is about to claim his second.

On whether it is fair to the drivers irrespective of the team, the Mercedes boss preferred not to judge the scenario and anticipate the price paid by the driver. Wolff, however, felt if a driver had an unfair advantage with his car being better due to an extra budget, it would be a difficult situation to judge.

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Mercedes boss believes budget cap row will test new financial regulations and their future

Toto Wolff believes the investigation into and process of policing the budget cap will put the new financial regulations to the test. Unaware of how the judgment and decisions could pan out throughout the process, the Mercedes chief felt it was difficult to anticipate whether drivers should be penalized if their teams were to exceed the budget cap.

Commenting further on the fairness of penalties for drivers amidst the budget cap row, Wolff said:

“It is more about the principle of ‘how is this going to pan out in the future?’ How robust are these regulations?’ How are they being enforced and policed?’ ‘How is the governance process going to run?’ Because we don’t know when it goes to the adjudication panel how the judges will decide and then it is a learning by doing for all of us.”

While Red Bull are being accused of exceeding the budget cap in the 2021 season, the story is only speculation at the moment. There is, however, an ongoing investigation on all the teams as the budget caps are being policed and reviewed. Mercedes are confident that they were within the budget but they are awaiting the results of the investigation. The FIA statement on the matter should be out ahead of the upcoming F1 Japanese GP weekend.