Formula 1 should be open-minded about the possibility of bringing back refuelling in 2021, says Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff.

FIA president Jean Todt has suggested allowing teams to refuel their cars during races as a means of bringing weight levels down during races. The plan to bring back a practice which was outlawed on cost grounds 10 years ago has prompted some criticism, but Wolff believes it deserves serious consideration.

“I think we should have no, as we say in Austria, holy cows,” said Wolff during the French Grand Prix weekend. “We should look at every single regulation and say ‘does it work or doesn’t it work for us’?”

Wolff sees a mixture of benefits and problems with allowing teams to refuel during races. “Refuelling certainly provides entertainment, provides another unpredictability factor in terms of something could happen. It makes the cars much lighter at the beginning of the race so the drivers are able to push much harder.

“The downside is maybe the race is a bit more predictable because the strategy will be all the same for everybody. That’s number one, and number two we are trying to save costs and this will increase the costs, a tiny bit. So it’s just maybe a philosophical rather than a real impact.

“But all that needs to be analysed rationally and then we need to take the best decisions.”

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner said refuelling should only be brought back if the costs associated with it can be managed.

“I find refuelling very interesting,” he said. “It could help the spectacle, but we need to be clever about it, not to just introduce more people to do the pit stops. Maybe we need to lose a few people on pit stops in general.

“So if you’re clever, we design some very simplistic equipment to refuel and don’t employ another five people to refuel. We just need to handle it properly to have more show, but not more cost.”

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2021 F1 season