Warning comes after Mercedes tried the ruse on Williams - but failed - at the British GP
Friday 10 July 2015 09:24, UK
The FIA has warned F1 teams against trying to trick rivals into making pit stops after Mercedes tried the ruse on Williams at the British GP.
With Williams pair Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas out front ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg during the opening laps at Silverstone, the world champions sent their pit crew out, suggesting a stop was imminent.
Their aim had been for Williams to respond and bring Massa in – in the hope that, by reacting to the threat of the ‘undercut’, Mercedes might also force their rivals into longer stints causing the car’s tyres to lose performance.
As it turned out, Williams ignored them but Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff owned up afterwards - even though, for safety reasons, crews are only allowed in the pit lane during races to do actual work on the cars.
Mercedes got away with it but FIA race director Charlie Whiting has now reminded teams that they’ll face punishment if the governing body can prove their intent.
"Going into the pit lane like this, for no valid reason, is not allowed but the difficulty would be proving it was a clear breach," Reuters quoted him as saying on Thursday.
"I have no intention of giving them a few chances and will talk to all the teams in Hungary about this and warning them that we will want to see (and hear) evidence that they were actually intending to stop."
Speaking after the race, in which Hamilton and Rosberg finished one-two, Wolff said he'd been texted by his wife Susie, who was watching events unfold from the Williams garage in her role as the team’s test driver.
"We know that Williams has more difficulties in keeping the tyres last at the end [of a stint] and we knew that triggering an early stop would make them think 'Are we able to do that?' and probably trigger them into a pit stop which would have caused them problems at the end," he explained.
"So it was a bit of a game which didn't function. My wife sent me a WhatsApp saying 'You guys think you can fool us? Ha, ha, ha' - so it was worth at least the entertainment!"
