Toto Wolff on Sunday said he hopes Ferrari’s breakthrough win stops the “nonsense” talk about equalisation.<\/p>\n
After Australia, Red Bull threatened to quit F1 over Mercedes’ huge supremacy amid the current engine regulations, arguing that only artificial “equalisation” mechanisms can fix the sport’s broken show.<\/p>\n
But just two weeks later in Malaysia, Sebastian Vettel beat both silver cars in just his second race for a strongly resurgent Ferrari.<\/p>\n
“We beat them fair and square,” said the beaming German, even though some suggested it was a strategy error for Mercedes amid the early safety car that contributed.<\/p>\n
But Ferrari, already strong in Australia, were neck-and-neck with Mercedes throughout the Sepang weekend, and in crucial ‘long run’ pace even looked marginally better than the reigning world champions from the very beginning in Friday practice.<\/p>\n
“Ferrari is back,” Vettel’s engineer told him on the radio.<\/p>\n
Melbourne winner and reigning champion Hamilton agreed, privately telling Vettel before the podium ceremony that the red car was “so quick” this weekend.<\/p>\n
“Geez, they had some good pace today,” Hamilton told Eddie Jordan on the podium.\u00a0 “They were too fast for us.”<\/p>\n
So after all the political talk about ‘equalisation’, defeated Mercedes chief Wolff said it had been a bad day for Mercedes but “a good day for formula one”.<\/p>\n
Hamilton said Ferrari’s win will make some unnamed people in the paddock “eat their words”.<\/p>\n
“Hopefully all the nonsense about equalisation stops now,” agreed Wolff.<\/p>\n
At the very minimum, Ferrari’s success in ‘equalising’ Mercedes’ pace in the conventional manner in Malaysia has dented Red Bull’s political push.<\/p>\n
It leaves the energy drink-owned camp needing to patch up its broken relationship with Renault and push forwards.<\/p>\n
With Vettel having lapped both Red Bulls on Sunday, Dr Helmut Marko told German television Sky that the team is now working hard to improve hand-in-hand with its engine supplier.<\/p>\n
“In Australia there was a lot of emotion,” he said, “but we have now found a way forward.\u00a0 Thank god it has already looked better here.”<\/p>\n
But Marko said Red Bull is still looking towards F1’s “stakeholders”, especially after both the team and Renault threatened to quit the sport.<\/p>\n
“That is why all the stakeholders, not just Red Bull and Renault but also the FIA and the commercial rights holder (must look at) how a company like Renault can again get the necessary value from F1 that makes sense,” he said.<\/p>\n
So he doesn’t think even Ferrari’s victory on Sunday is evidence enough that the controversial engine regulations are actually able to work for the sport.<\/p>\n
“Ferrari was very strong here,” admitted Marko, “but they also have a very good car and the tyre wear is very good and Sebastian Vettel loves this track.<\/p>\n
“Without doubt they have made a great leap forward with the engine, but under normal circumstances they are still more than half a second away from Mercedes.<\/p>\n
“That is not enough,” said Marko.\u00a0 “There is also the high temperatures (in Malaysia) and the specific track, while Mercedes did not find the ideal setup.<\/p>\n
“The general balance of power has not yet changed,” he claimed.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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