Toto Wolff warns against 'baseball bat' measures to address F1 regulations

Toto Wolff has stated F1 must address the current regulations with a “scalpel” rather than a “baseball bat” ahead of a critical meeting on Monday.

The new rules this year have drawn criticism from drivers and fans due to the tame nature in which the cars need to be driven through corners during qualifying to harvest energy and the 'yo-yo racing' product that has been seen across the grands prix.

There are also safety concerns present after Oliver Bearman suffered a high-speed crash last time out in Japan after being caught out by a speed differential to the car ahead.

F1 and the FIA are using the ongoing April break to address any changes with a major crunch meeting scheduled for Monday, April 20.

Wolff insisted that all teams share the same objectives but asserted the sport must take care over how it goes about resolving any concerns.

“I must say that the discussions that have been taking place between the group of drivers, the FIA, F1 and the teams have been constructive,” Wolff told media including RacingNews365.

“We all share the same objectives. It’s how can we improve the product, make it make it out and out racing and look at what can we improve in terms of safety, but act with a scalpel and not with a baseball bat.

“We are coming to good solutions that we're going to ratify, hopefully today, in order to evolve.

“It’s only three races in and in a way, we need to learn from the past, where sometimes decisions were made in an erratic way, and then we overshot and realised it wasn't good.

“We are custodians of this sport, and in that respect, I am carefully optimistic that we're going to improve the racing whilst protecting what's really good.”

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A suggestion was then put to Wolff that the sport may be in danger of playing things too conservatively when it comes to changes, and be forced to revisit the situation again later down the line.

The Austrian, however, does not see any hazard in such a scenario.

“If you have aligned objectives and you define those objectives at the beginning, and that is, how can we work on making qualifying more spectacular and enjoyable for the drivers?” Wolff said.

“How can we tackle safety objectives and at the same time, protect what's really good within the racing - the overtaking.

“That’s why those steps look like they are in the right direction, not overshooting, not undershooting.

“But if you come to the conclusion further down the line that it needs to, we need to maybe redefine the objective, then so be it. 

“But at the moment, I think that's carved out in a pretty clear way, and that's good.”