Andrea Stella was not the only team principal left frustrated with the stewards after the latest round of racing in Austin, as Mercedes boss Toto Wolff criticised the decision-makers for their “inconsistent” rulings.
Both Mercedes drivers endured a challenging weekend. Lewis Hamilton shockingly failed to make it out of Q1 on Saturday; then, his race was unexpectedly cut short when, after a strong start, he spun off into the gravel trap and retired from the race only two laps in, abandoning his beached car. Meanwhile, after qualifying 6th, George Russell was forced to start the race from the pitlane. Despite this, he demonstrated solid pace, putting in a quietly impressive recovery drive to finish 6th.
However, as he was making his way through the field, he was hit with a five-second penalty following his overtake on Valtteri Bottas. The stewards ruled that Russell had forced Bottas off the track at Turn 12 while getting past. This was something of a theme on Sunday, as several other drivers, including Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris, were also handed penalties for similar incidents at various points in the race.
Russell’s incredulous reaction was broadcast as his race engineer informed him of the penalty. Moments later, Wolff came on the radio, calling the sanction a “total joke.”
When Russell radioed in on the cool-down lap to ask whether Max Verstappen had received a penalty for his move on Norris in Turn 1—which saw the McLaren driver forced wide as Verstappen made his way past—Wolff confirmed that he hadn’t. He added: “And at the end, Lando got a penalty for being forced off and overtaking on the outside. I guess it’s a bit biased decision-making…”
Wolff later doubled down, telling Sky F1 in a post-race segment: “It’s inconsistent. I think with Valtteri, it wasn’t even a race.
“Yesterday [in the Sprint] we’ve seen a few of those incidents that were exactly the same, that weren’t penalised when racing for positions actually, real positions. And then receiving that penalty is just completely odd and bizarre.
“I think we know why, but obviously you can’t say that on television.
“Sometimes there are correlations. When there is decision-making that is a bit interesting.”
Wolff also addressed the issue during a session with the written media.
“I think the stewards are in a really difficult situation,” he said. “There’s always going to be one [driver] that’s happy and the other one unhappy.
“But we need to try to understand whether there are certain patterns in stewarding decisions and whether that correlates to some of the situations. Everybody’s racing hard, but for me the decision against George was inexplicable.
“We’ve seen plenty of these situations in turn, what is it, 12? None of them was penalised until George, and then obviously there was another one afterwards. But the whole weekend until then it wasn’t.”
Although he referenced it, Wolff refrained from directly commenting on the contentious Verstappen/Norris incident.
“I don’t want to comment on the Max and Lando situation because it’s not my race. I think Zak [Brown] and Andrea [Stella] are going to look at that.
“Everybody’s giving their best,” Wolff said, before cryptically adding: “Yeah, I need to hold myself back here. I think all of you know.”
He quickly clarified that he doesn’t intend to paint all stewards with the same brush.
“I think there’s great stewards, honestly great stewards that have either been in the racing car or have a non-biased view on situations, doing the best of their abilities for a job that is truly difficult.
“We mustn’t put everybody in the same category. There’s a few, you know, inconsistencies, but I’m sure the President [of the FIA] is going to look it.”
