"Bored" Wolff yet to decide on F1 flexi-wing protest

Tensions between Mercedes and Red Bull have escalated in recent weeks on the back of F1’s flexi-wing clampdown by the FIA.

Mercedes is unhappy that rival Red Bull has been allowed to keep an advantage for using the flexi-wings for this weekend’s race in Baku, and has indicated that it may elect to protest the team if it continued to run them.

A protest can be lodged immediately after any session, but no action was taken after practice on Friday or Saturday's qualifying session.

However, the door remains open for Mercedes to take action in the immediate aftermath of the race.

Wolff believes the flexi-wing saga has taken up too much of everyone’s time already, but says a final call on what his team will do has not been set in stone.

He suggested that analysis of the wing Red Bull is using for the Baku race will be the first thing to look at, with the Milton Keynes-based team using a different configuration to the one that caused controversy at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Asked by Autosport if there was going to be a protest, Wolff said: “Well I think the flexi-wing saga starts to bore everybody, including myself.

“I guess we will see. I don't know what was on their car, and what they are going to have [for the race]. I think it's then to decide.”

McLaren is the other team that has been unhappy about the delay in the FIA introducing tougher pull back tests to check on the rear wings.

Its team principal Andreas Seidl made clear that it would leave matters to the governing body to decide if it takes action should teams be spotted running flexi-wings during the Baku race.

“To be honest, I haven’t seen an analysis yet of what happened in qualifying. We were busy with ourselves, and we usually also try to just focus on ourselves,” he explained.

“But I think the ball is in the court of the FIA to act if they think they have to act, within what is also written in the technical directive. So on our side, we just focus on ourselves now.”