Mercedes boss Toto Wolff preferred the “entertaining” battle between his two drivers over Max Verstappen’s fight with Charles Leclerc.
After complaints about the over-regulation of on-track duels in recent races, Silverstone produced several breathtaking overtakes with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas providing the action early on.
The Briton was much faster than his teammate in the opening laps and swept past Bottas on the exit of Brooklands, only for the Finn to respond through Copse.
“I thought it was very good racing between the two of them, certainly very entertaining, nobody could say that there wasn’t hard defending, but it wasn’t dirty,” the Austrian said post-race.
“This was exactly what we debated in the morning.
“We have seen that on many occasions between Lewis and Valtteri, they respect each other off track and they respect each other on track, to take it another step it is fair enough if you race against another team.”
Also Read:
- Verstappen: Leclerc ‘sore’ from Austria, Red Bull clearly faster than Ferrari
- Hamilton: Safety Car didn’t decide British GP, could have been tougher with Bottas
As for the multi-chapter duel between Verstappen and Leclerc, however, Wolff was less complimentary.
“What I think we’ve seen between some of the other drivers is borderline dirty,” he claimed.
“There is always dirtiness we want to see out there in racing and it is good when it is drivers going against each other but not in the same team.”
Perhaps more encouragingly for Formula 1 though, none of the moves, while sometimes a little extreme, were investigated by the stewards.
“I think that Austria was quite an eye-opener for me to understand how far we could go and what was accepted and I’m very happy at the end to race like this,” Leclerc commented.
“I think every driver wants to race hard and that’s what we did during most of the race.
“It was very, very fun, always borderline, but I think always in the rules and very, very enjoyable from the car.”
