Toto Wolff addresses McLaren relationship after 'back foot' comment

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has addressed comments from Andrea Stella and Zak Brown that McLaren has been on the "back foot" as a customer of the German manufacturer this season.

McLaren has largely been unable to challenge the Brackley-based outfit across the first half of the campaign, with Stella insisting last month that the team had been on the "back foot".

The Woking-based outfit has faced issues with Mercedes' power unit, resulting in multiple retirements earlier this year. It is the only one of the top four teams that is a customer operation.

McLaren's view that it is at a disadvantage is based largely on the fact that it cannot react to reliability issues in the same way as the works team, nor can it conduct chassis experiments in the same way.

Wolff agrees with the comments made by McLaren and has stressed that the papaya outfit has been very understanding of the challenges Mercedes has faced.

Asked if the relationship with McLaren has become difficult, Wolff told select media, including RacingNews365: "No, they were actually very correct and gracious in the way Andrea and Zak assessed the situation. 

"In a period of new regulations, obviously an integrated power unit and chassis team will always have a certain advantage, simply because the chassis development that happens on the simulator has a lag. 

"That's why there are things that you need to learn on the chassis side when deploying the power unit, and that's what they said from the beginning, all along. 

"It's a catch-up race, and I think we are coming now to the point where you can see that the development curve and the understanding are going to flatten out, and then everybody is pretty much going to have the same level of understanding of these things."

Wolff unaware of McLaren complaints

While Wolff appreciates McLaren's understanding, he did confirm that there were multiple issues to address in delivering the team the latest version of its power unit.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri both ran the latest Mercedes software at the Belgian Grand Prix, which was designed to address battery-related issues.

"Now, when it comes to power units, there was a phasing issue, there was a mileage issue, so I didn't see them complaining about it," added Wolff.

"What I saw, and this is something I would like to re-emphasise, is that they're very correct as a partner, as a client, understanding the deficits that one could possibly have on the chassis side."