© Finn Pomeroy for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix ltd.
Red Bull’s team boss Christian Horner has accused McLaren of ‘cheating’, but Mercedes’ Toto Wolff says he has “no doubt that these guys stay within the rules”.
Red Bull has recently raised suspicion regarding McLaren’s performance, and has reportedly been carrying out its own investigation into McLaren’s supposedly illegal tyre and brake cooling methods.
This accusation has been denied by McLaren CEO Zak Brown, and in Miami the American even told Red Bull team boss Christian Horner to ‘put up or shut up’.
When asked about the situation, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said he is certain that the Woking team is not doing anything illegal.
“I think that the team around Zak, Andrea [Stella, McLaren Team Principal], Rob Marshall [McLaren’s Chief Designer]… these are good people with integrity,” the Austrian said.
“If in the past, [we] often say, ‘Well, let’s look at whether there’s something borderline’, but I have no doubt that these guys stay within the rules.
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“It’s just really good development [with] that car. They’ve understood how to manage the tyre much better than everybody else and, in my opinion, it’s totally legit.”
Toto even went a step further and questioned the validity of Red Bull’s approach to the whole situation.
“Also, from a team management point of view, we should never… when somebody is doing a better job than you, we should not look at that and say, ‘They’re cheating’, because that’s not the right attitude anyway.
“So we just need to become better and eventually not get 30 or 35 seconds over 57 laps,” Wolff concluded.
