We’re no cheats
MERCEDES BOSS SLAMS RED BULL’S OIL BURN CLAIM
LEWIS HAMILTON’S mercedes boss toto Wolff has defended his world champion team against the implication that they cheat their way to success.
The row has broken out on the eve of the new season after Red Bull pointedly wrote to governing body the FIA for clarification about burning oil as fuel to gain a boost in qualifying.
Red Bull seem to think mercedes may be doing just that, which would break the rules because only certain chemicals are allowed to power the engine. Red Bull’s role in stirring this dispute prompted an angry response from Wolff, who said: ‘they must be seeing ghosts.
‘For years we’ve had a map (fuel injection setting) that allows us to use more horsepower in quali- fying. this is nothing new. maybe there will be protests, but mercedes feel safe.’
Wolff’s ‘seeing ghosts’ remark was doubtless aimed at Christian Horner, his counterpart at Red Bull. the two have a history of jousting with each other, as illustrated last year when Wolff rang Red Bull’s max Verstappen to implore him not to get entangled with one of his mercedes drivers in their F1 championship run-in.
Horner, angered by what he saw as needless meddling, made a hand-to-ear phone gesture as he walked by while Wolff was conducting a press conference.
The FIA have reminded teams that burning oil as fuel is not allowed.
While mercedes and Red Bull squabbled, monuments to mclaren’s greatness were being staged here yesterday in the build-up to Sunday’s australian Grand Prix — reminders to driver Fernando alonso of how far the team have fallen.
The film McLaren, depicting the life of founder Bruce mclaren, was shown on the Southbank of the Yarra River. and at the Stokehouse restaurant on Port Phillip Bay the team’s once traditional pre-race shindig was being revived in lavish style.
Alonso, meanwhile, has been feeding the animals at melbourne Zoo.
the double world champion knows a new chapter in the story of Britain’s most successful Formula one team will not be written on the albert Park track, so slow and unreliable are the Honda engines inside the orange and black livery of this year’s mclaren.
‘It was a difficult two weeks of testing and we are prepared to face a difficult weekend here,’ admitted the Spaniard, who has finished no race higher than fifth since returning to mclaren for the 2015 season.
‘The first step will be to work on reliability before we can make any assumptions or predictions about performance.’
Alonso’s realism reflects the fact that mclaren did fewer laps in testing than any other team — an embarrassment for an organisation with such rich resources and pedigree.
Just getting his car, or that of team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne, to the end of the race will be a relative achievement.
Expectations are set higher at Red Bull, who, it was thought, would make profitable use of the new technical regulations under the pencil tip of their celebrated British designer adrian newey. But their australian driver Daniel Ricciardo said: ‘It is my target to be world champion, and I will do all I can to make it happen this year, but I am not expecting it.’
Instead, he predicts mercedes to be a yawning half a second quicker. If Ricciardo’s feeling is to be believed then Ferrari will pose the main threat to the mercedes juggernaut. Wolff believes so, too. ‘I see Ferrari on the podium on Sunday, and I hope we will fight them for victory,’ he told Gazzetta dello Sport.
New high- speed barriers have been added to the track, as well as more tyre buffers as the bigger, faster 2017 cars are expected to increase cornering speeds by around 15mph.
Michael Schumacher’s lap record — 1min 24.1sec from 2004 — is under threat.