By sportswriter Michael Butterworth
SHANGHAI, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Mercedes AMG Petronas team principal Toto Wolff says a hard Brexit would be "massively disadvantageous" for his team, and that a second referendum on the subject would not be undemocratic.
Although racing with a German license, Mercedes is one of six Formula 1 teams headquartered in the U.K., and Wolff told Xinhua of his concern about the implications of the U.K. leaving the European Union without a deal.
"It seems like we don't know what happens tomorrow," Wolff said. "There are so many large organizations based in the U.K. that need to understand how things are going. Hard borders will affect the ability to trade, and it affects all of us, because we're all buying goods that come from Europe, most companies have suppliers that come from Europe, and many of us are selling products to Europe."
The Austrian added, "A hard Brexit would be massively disadvantageous. It would come to the point where you would have to consider whether you are actually operationally capable of continuing what you do. I think everybody needs to recognise that a hard Brexit is something that must be avoided, because it will reduce the quality of life for many people in the U.K.."
With the U.K. parliament having last month voted to reject a no-deal Brexit, there is growing momentum within the country for a second referendum on the terms of the U.K.'s exit from the EU, a notion that Wolff supports.
"In a day and age where circumstances change on an almost daily basis, I think it is absolutely not undemocratic to give the population the possibility of saying, "Is that still what we think?" What's the downside of that? Because the result might be surprising."
Wolff spoke to Xinhua on the sidelines of a weekend in which his drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas secured a one-two finish at the 2019 Chinese Grand Prix, and Wolff reserved special praise for Bottas, who dominated the first race of the 2019 season in Melbourne after a difficult 2018 in which the Finn had failed to win a race.
"The really good drivers are able to improve and raise their game from season to season. Valtteri had a tough second half of last season, and reflected over the winter on how his approach needs to change or how he can improve. You can see that his performances [this season] are more solid, and he was exceptional in Melbourne."
(Xinhua was at the launch of a new range of Petronas Syntium lubricants in Shanghai at the invitation of Petronas)
