Mercedes boss Toto Wolff does not believe the idea of penalising Formula 1 penalty points is a good deterrent for those taking engine grid drops. The recent Italian Grand Prix featured nine drivers taking grid drops for exceeding their allocation of engine components and also confusion about the provisional starting grid. It took nearly four hours for one to be drawn up, with extra doubt about Max Verstappen's place after a five-place grid drop from second. Some thought he was set for seventh - the standard drop - but as others behind him also had drops, it could have meant he was shuffled back up to fourth. In the end, he started seventh - but still won as Wolff's driver Lewis Hamilton recovered from 19th to fifth.
Penalty points not the solutions
While Wolff believes action needs to be taken on engine grid penalties, he does not believe the idea floated by some of docking championship points for teams is the solution. "I think we know why we have engine engine penalties," he explained in response to a question from RacingNews365.com. "We have grid penalties because we don't want to have qualifying engines and deploy an engine every single race. "There were suggestions we'll make the teams have penalty points in the championship, but that wouldn't solve the problem, because we will still throw engines at the driver that can win the championship. "I think we need to tidy them [engine penalty rules] up. "Maybe we can do it unanimously for next year, which makes sense. "It makes sense for all of us together, sticking our heads together and saying: 'how can we clean that up so we are avoiding confusion?'"
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