29/05/2025 09:30
Mercedes chief communications officer Bradley Lord has provided an
update on the supposed altercation between Toto Wolff and Williams
team principal James Vowles after the Monaco Grand Prix. Following
the 78-lap race in the Circuit de Monaco, the boss of the
Brackley-based squad was shown appearing to remonstrate with his
counterpart on camera. Stood above the team garages, the Austrian
yelled down to Vowles - who was previously chief strategist at
Mercedes - in the pit lane, who shouted back. However, Lord has
since explained the exchange was in no way heated. What instigated
the interaction was the contentious two-stop mandate introduced for
this F1 season's trip to Monte Carlo. The experiment did not work
as hoped and team strategy, a method employed to great effect by
Williams to secure a double points-paying finish, was a prevalent
aspect of the race. Carlos Sainz and then Alex Albon backed George
Russell - and Kimi Antonelli - up throughout the grand prix, much
to the frustration of the British driver. However, there was no
malice between Wolff and the Williams team principal. Indeed, the
former revealed the latter had texted him an apology for the
tactics used during the race . "I was messaging Toto yesterday
saying it would be really brilliant if it were a real argument,"
Lord said before emphasising the good nature of the moment. "And I
just can't imagine him and James actually having that happen. I've
seen some stuff on the Internet as well, comparing it to Toto's
reaction in Saudi in 2021. "It looks superficially similar. I was
standing there next to that one as well, and I can certainly
confirm it was nothing like that at all. "It was simply just, oh,
thanks very much… thanks for the team play. And there was nothing
else we could do. And I think as Toto explained afterwards, James
had already messaged to say, sorry, we had to play the team game.
And he's absolutely right. They did. It gave them two points
finishes." Lord highlighted how Mercedes would have enacted team
play in the same position, and in fact did, to consolidate
Russell's place on the edge of the points, having started just
ahead of team-mate Antonelli in P14. "It's exactly the sort of
thing we'd have been contemplating doing had we been in the
position to make it work for both drivers," he added. "And indeed,
it is exactly what we did with George and Kimi to give George that
P11 rather than P17 or P18 as Kimi ended up finishing."
