Toto Wolff hints at FIA steward ‘correlations’ after ‘bizarre’ US Grand Prix penalties

Toto Wolff called out the “inconsistent” stewards’ decisions at the United States GP, and wants to know if there are “correlations” in what he feels was “biased” decision-making.

The Austin stewards came in for some stick during Sunday’s Grand Prix with Wolff saying George Russell’s penalty was a “joke” while McLaren were fuming over Lando Norris’.

Toto Wolff questions ‘certain patterns in stewarding decisions’

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock

Russell was the first driver penalised on Sunday, hit with a five-second penalty for forcing Valtteri Bottas off the track at Turn 12 as he set about recovering from his pit lane start.

Yuki Tsunoda received a similar penalty and yet Max Verstappen twice escaped without sanctions for forcing Norris off the track as the championship rival went wheel-to-wheel.

In fact, their battle ended with Norris being penalised for his antics in their second bout as he overtook Verstappen off the track, even though Verstappen had defended by pushing them both off.

Russell, who finished the Grand Prix in an impressive sixth place from the pit lane, asked Mercedes on his cooldown lap whether Verstappen had received a penalty for his earlier Turn 1 battle with Norris.

Wolff replied: “No, he didn’t get a penalty, and at the end, Lando got a penalty for being forced off and overtaking on the outside. I guess it is a bit biased decision-making.”

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Wolff called out stewards, telling Sky F1 their decision-making in Austin was “inconsistent.”

“With Valtteri, it wasn’t even a race. [In the sprint] we saw a few of those incidents that were exactly the same and weren’t penalised when racing for positions, real positions actually. Receiving that penalty is just completely odd and bizarre.

“I think we know why, but I can’t say that on television.”

“Sometimes there are correlations,” he added. “When there is decision-making that is a bit interesting.”

Wolff reiterated his points when he sat down for his post-race briefing with the media, including PlanetF1.com.

“I think the stewards are in a really difficult situation. There’s always going to be one that’s happy and the other one unhappy,” he started by saying.

“But,” he continued, “we need to try to understand whether there are certain patterns in stewarding decisions, and whether that correlates to some of the you know, situations.

“Everybody’s racing hard, but for me the decision against George was inexplicable.

“We’ve seen plenty of these situations in Turn 12, not one of them was penalised until it hit George and then obviously there was another one of those. I don’t want to comment on the Max/Lando situation, because it’s not my race. Zak and Andrea [McLaren bosses] will look at that.

“Everybody’s giving their best… I need to hold myself back.”

Wolff, though, was quick to insist that not all stewards should be tarnished with the same brush before calling on FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem to get involved in rooting out the inconsistent ones.

“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,” he said.

“We mustn’t put everybody in the same category. There’s a few, you know, inconsistencies, but I’m sure the President is going to look it.”

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