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Wolff confirms Force India team order

Published on 31 May 2018 11:26
11
By: Jeroen Jonkers

Toto Wolff has admitted he asked for Esteban Ocon to let Lewis Hamilton past in Monaco.

Wolff is the team boss at Mercedes, and Ocon is a Mercedes junior driver.

The Frenchman currently drives for Mercedes-powered Force India, and after Monaco he seemed to hint that 'team orders' were in play when Hamilton sped past during the race.

"I'm a Mercedes driver," Ocon said. "You should ask the boss."

Wolff was asked by a reporter for La Derniere Heure if he gave the order for Ocon to let Hamilton through, and responded: "Yes."

Asked why, the Austrian added: "It is how it is."

Freguz

Posts: 160

How an already exciting race gets even more exciting

2
May 31 2018 - 11:29

F1 News Lewis Hamilton Susie Wolff Esteban Ocon Mercedes Force India

Replies (11)

Freguz

Posts: 160
How an already exciting race gets even more exciting
- + 2
- May 31 2018 - 11:29
Bhurt

Posts: 320
So overtaking IS possible in Monaco after all.
- + 0
- May 31 2018 - 14:39
F1_IS_Dead

Posts: 123
Confirmed: Ocon not a "racing driver" anymore.

Now one has to ask about Stroll's "accelerating problem" out of the last corner in Baku 2017. It looked very suspicious, maybe Williams got a call from Toto too?
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- May 31 2018 - 16:30
mcbhargav

Posts: 1,332
This is clearly anti competitive. You could put other team's drivers on a payroll and ask them to give the way.
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- May 31 2018 - 16:41
- ajpennypacker
  
  Posts: 2,475
  Agreed. But it's nothing we haven't seen Red Bull do with Toro Rosso, or Ferrari with other customer teams. "It is how it is" indeed.
  + 0
  
  May 31 2018 - 18:54
xoya

Posts: 583
This is starting to look like a really bad episode of "Game of thrones".
- The one where a circus rolled into the town
- And the town being Monte Carlo
- Circus is pretty self explanatory
- + 0
- May 31 2018 - 17:44
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  Except we dont get to have the fun or interesting kinda politics GoT have, nor do we have a charismatic Cersei, Varys or Littlefinger to play those kinda political games.
  + 0
  
  May 31 2018 - 19:17
calle.itw

Posts: 8,527
Incredibly disappointing. I generally regarded Wolff as a pretty solid bloke, but this has downgraded him significantly for me. I sincerely hope this will force the FIA to step in and regulate how much control one team can exert over others, but I guess they wont.
- + 2
- May 31 2018 - 19:19
RogerF1

Posts: 501
How a competitive independent engine supplier would churn up this mess. In many other sports this would be called race fixing and makes an even bigger mockery that F1 is becoming. This is a very damning comment. For team orders now read “engine supplier orders”. This should be banned before Canada.
- + 1
- May 31 2018 - 21:15
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  At this rate we really need companies like VW, Aston Martin and that other Japanese manufacturer that may or may not be Toyota to shit or get of the potty. Its about time we get a direct answer if they are legit interested in entering.
  + 0
  
  Jun 1 2018 - 08:21
RogerF1

Posts: 501
The ingenuity of F1. The FIA rule against manufacturers not supplying current engines to customer teams, so they take control of the accelerator peddle instead.
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- Jun 1 2018 - 08:30