Toto Wolff, Mercedes Formula 1 boss, wants his team to take F1 decision “on the chin”. He wants the team to be courageous after narrowed championship lead.
FIA cancelled the race after two laps behind a safety car and decided to award half points to conclude the Belgian GP.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull’s driver, took the pole position in qulaifying which led to his victory at Spa-Francorchamps. He fulfilled the minimum requirement for point scoring by completing two official laps.
Verstappen was handed 12.5 points rather than 25 for his victory. It took 5 points out of Lewis Hamilton’s championship lead. The British finished third on podium and currently leads the championship by three points.
Similar thing happened to Constructor Championship standings, where Mercedes lost points. Currently, it leads the standing by seven point with Red Bull behind it.
The decision to run only two lap was to provide a legal cover for a race to have happened. It attracted criticism from all ranks of stakeholders except authorities.
Hamilton took his discomfort to social media and called it farce. He believes the decision was purely financial, which was denied by Domenicali, F1 boss.
Reportedly, Domenicali wishes to discuss possible changes to regulations. He claims that F1 regulations does not allow postponement of the race.
Wolff commented on Hamilton’s opinion and believes that decision made many people upset. He showed his reservations but accepted the decision.
“Half points have been awarded, when probably it was expected that the weather wouldn’t get any better,” Wolff said.
“But it is what it is. And I guess you need to take this one on the chin and close the chapter for this race and move on.
“In a certain way, we must really applaud the fans that have been there for three days in the rain, they have waited for a race to happen.
“But as a team, we lost some points and that’s why we have to move on.”
Wolff considered Belgian GP as a “freak day”
“Everybody tried hard to get a race under way and because of the rain, it didn’t happen,” Wolff said.
“To maybe come back to your Monday question, I think we have had plenty of fans that day that will have to go back to their jobs tomorrow.
“We would have tried to have the race for the local fans, and therefore that wouldn’t have made a great difference for them.”
