Toto Wolff insists Mercedes' advantage from engine compression not worth the fight

With Mercedes' rivals caught with their pants down and crying foul, Ferrari reportedly the most, the FIA gave in, and the vote was arranged.

The new proposal basically allows for the compression ratio to be tested on a hot engine as opposed to the initial process that was conducted at ambient temperatures, which Mercedes exploited with their innovation.

Looking at the balance of powers, the vote is expected to go through, but the changes will not apply before August, which means Mercedes will enjoy their alleged advantage for almost half of the season.

Maybe that is why the reason Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has been calm and gracious throughout the whole situation whilst downplaying his team's advantage.

“We said it all along that this looks like a storm in a teacup, the whole thing," he said after the FIA announced the vote. “Numbers were coming up that were, you know, if these numbers would have been true, absolutely understand why somebody would fight it.

"But eventually, it's not worth the fight," the Austrian maintained. "It doesn't change anything for us, whether we stay like this or whether we change to the new regulations, and that's been a process."

Indeed, Wolff's flexibility on the matter is surprising, but he explained that saying: "We also want to be good citizens in the sport because it doesn't make a big difference.

"You've developed a component to the regulations and that's been confirmed and then everybody else gangs up and says it's illegal. The regulators are being put under pressure. Is that how it should go?

“We then changed opinion. Philosophically, you can disagree with it, because I believe regs are there to be made, and you keep the FIA close to you—and that's how it should be.

“But, if you have four other PU [manufacturers] that are putting immense pressure on the FIA at a certain stage, what choice do we have [other] than not to play?

"We were pretty comfortable in even having a protest going on Friday in Melbourne. Is this what we want?”

Another story making the rounds was the issues Mercedes' fuel supplier, Petronas, were facing getting their mix approved.

Wolff also downplayed that, adding: “This is another of these stories. We were told compression ratio is something that we were illegal, which is total bullsh!t, utter bullsh!t. And now the next story comes up that our fuel is illegal.

“I don't know where that comes from, and it starts spinning again. Maybe tomorrow we'll invent something else," he quipped in conclusion. (Reporting by Agnes Carlier)