"This situation has clearly gone too far" - Mercedes' Toto Wolff blasts fellow F1 team principals for playing 'political games' over porpoising

The F1 porpoising saga saw its second chapter at the 2022 F1 Canadian GP when Toto Wolff blasted his fellow team principals for playing "political games" over the phenomenon. According to Motorsport.com, the situation got worse after the Saturday meeting between F1 team principals, as the Mercedes boss could not hold back his anger over the happenings in the sport.

When questioned about what had happened in the aforementioned meeting, Toto Wolff went on an extensive rant and blasted his competitors for playing 'political games. He said:

“This is a sport where you’re trying to keep a competitive advantage or gain it. he said. But this situation has clearly gone too far. All drivers, at least one in every team, have said that they were in pain after Baku, that they had difficulty in keeping the car on track or blurred vision. Team principals trying to manipulate what is being said in order to keep the competitive advantage and trying to play political games when the FIA tries to come up with a quick solution, to at least put the cars in a better position, is disingenuous. And that’s what I said.”

Terming his peers' half-hearted approach to the problem at hand as 'pitiful', the Austrian said:

“I’m not only talking about the Mercedes: all of the cars suffered in some way or other in Baku, and still do it here. The cars are too stiff. The cars bounce or whatever you want to call it. We have long term effects that we can’t even judge. But at any time this is a safety risk, and then coming up with little manipulations in the background, or Chinese whispers, or briefing the drivers, is just pitiful.”

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Toto Wolff emphasizes that F1 porpoising issue is not exclusive to Mercedes

Mercedes has been rounded up by many of its competitors, including Red Bull's Christian Horner, who has accused the team of playing up the porpoising issue through its drivers. They have reasoned that the German outfit appears to have the worst porpoising effects of the grid on its cars, so it might be in its best interests to have an F1 regulation change.

Toto Wolff vehemently denied these claims, specifically pointing out drivers from other teams who have spoken out against the porpoising phenomenon and how it could affect health in the long term. The Mercedes team principal said:

“Of course, people will question whether my position is sincere or not. That’s why I’m saying it’s not only our problem. But if a Red Bull driver says you reach 300 km/h, which is when the issue comes up, and with these problems, ‘you can even lose your vision when braking or not being able to position the car properly’, as Perez said. Then you listen to the words of [Carlos] Sainz, you listen to what [Daniel] Ricciardo has said, we listen to what [Esteban] Ocon has said, [Kevin] Magnussen and both our drivers.”

Emphasizing the fact that these issues are not exclusive to Mercedes alone, the 50-year-old said:

“This is not a team’s problem. This is a design issue of ground effect cars that needs to be tackled before we have a situation, whatever it is. And it is not just by putting the cars up, because putting the cars up doesn’t solve the stiffness of the inherent aerodynamic characteristics.”

At the end of the day, one has to keep in mind that every team in F1 is looking after its own interests. This whole controversy over the FIA directive does not appear to be dying anytime soon.