Wolff: Final warning
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have been warned that one more collision could have a “negative outcome” on their World title campaign.
Mercedes met with the drivers ahead of the British Grand Prix to discuss last Sunday’s final lap collision at the Austrian Grand Prix.
The team set out revised Rules of Engagement as well as “much greater deterrents.”
And while motorsport boss Toto Wolff would not go into detail on those deterrents, he says that would have a negative impact on the driver’s title bid.
“You know how a driver is calibrated and what is important for a driver – and it is clear that if it would happen again, which is entirely in their hands, it is something that would have a negative outcome for their campaign,” said Wolff.
“This is their final warning.
“We have had a culmination of accidents in the last couple of races that we somehow need to contain.
“This is the tricky bit because if you have a yellow card, will it change your way of tackling it or not? Because you know what happens with a second yellow card.
“It is a scenario that none of us wants to be in.”
Hamilton and Rosberg’s Austrian GP collision was their third incident of this season as they collided in Spain, resulting in a double DNF, and they banged wheels in Canada, which forced Rosberg off the track and down the order.
“We didn’t like the manoeuvre [in Austria] because it could have ended up in a double DNF,” Wolff added. “And they know that such a manoeuvre cannot happen again.
“We’ve come to a point that we don’t want to spend our days inside the team analysing how much blame, how much fault, we want to attribute to each of the drivers.
“We don’t want to have them go around like puppies, but equally, let us please not have three shunts in five races.
“If the drivers clash three times in five races it is risking our main objective, which is to win the championship.”
He added: “The fundamental principle is that they have responsibility. Once the race is on, only they can manage the situation. The outcome is in their hands.”