Toto Wolff shares ‘dysfunctional’ issue McLaren now face after Monza

Follow us on Google Discover

Toto Wolff has spent his fair share of time managing two drivers at the top of their game, and knows just how tricky it can be to keep both happy.

Mercedes had themselves a handful to deal with when Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were teammates – culminating in a spectacular crash during the Spanish Grand Prix in 2016.

On multiple occasions, the sport has seen team orders deployed over the years, including at the Silver Arrows towards Valtteri Bottas at the 2018 German Grand Prix – as James Vowles and Wolff decided that Hamilton’s championship aspirations were most important.

McLaren are yet to take this step, and it has upset Lando Norris who lost out in Hungary and Italy because his team insisted that Oscar Piastri was treated fairly.

Toto Wolff warns McLaren of ‘dysfunctional’ situation after Monza

Norris was overtaken at the Roggia chicane by Piastri on lap one, giving him a poor exit and allowing Ferrari‘s Charles Leclerc – who went on to win the race, past him too.

The Brit felt that the overtake was aggressive, while some fans believe that he needs to be prioritised at every race to ensure that they can catch up to Max Verstappen and enhance their chances of a first championship since 2008.

READ MORE: Damon Hill left very concerned after hearing Helmut Marko’s comments about McLaren at Monza

Wolff has come out to warn McLaren how quickly things can become difficult to manage, but also stated how there isn’t always a solution.

“I think as a racing team that is battling at the front suddenly, you are between a rock and a hard place because on one side they are racers like we are racers,” Wolff told Motorsport.com.

“We want to make sure that the best man wins but on the other side when it starts to become dysfunctional and impacting your team performance then how do you react to that.”

Wolff believes that the team ‘always loses’

At the end of the day, Formula 1 is a competitive championship and not only the drivers, but both sides of the garage want to win.

In deploying team orders, McLaren will be upsetting one half of the garage no matter what they do, and keeping the team together when fighting for both titles is important.

Wolff also spoke of how agonising it is to lose the drivers’ title by a few points because the teams didn’t hold positions at any point.

READ MORE: Lawrence Barretto shares ‘favourite’ to replace Kevin Magnussen in Baku after earning one-race ban

“The team is always on the losing end because if you freeze positions and have team orders then you have maybe not what our racing soul wants to do but the rational side needs to prevail,” he continued.

“At the end you don’t want to lose out on a championship by three or five points that you could have easily made. So walking that tightrope is so difficult and there is no universal truth of how to handle it.”