Toto Wolff has admitted that Mercedes is one of those two teams that blocked the plan for reversed grid sprint races in 2020.
Earlier, F1 Sporting Director Ross Brawn had disclosed that two teams had rejected his proposal, although, he refrained from mentioning those teams' names.
The Mercedes team boss states that his team rejected the proposal in order to preserve the DNA of Formula 1.
"I did it because we have a responsibility in F1 to preserve the DNA"
"It felt wrong, not in order to preserve an advantage because maybe it would have been good for us as Ferrari would have been behind us when you look at the current qualifying pace." said Wolff.
"But I voted against it because when you're looking at the 100m final in the Olympics, you're not making Usain Bolt start five metres behind just to make it an exciting finish."
Ross Brawn had flown to Paris ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix, in a hope to fetch support from all the 10 teams for Liberty Media's plans of experimenting with reversed grid sprint races; which would've replaced the qualifying session on Saturday.
Brawn had earlier expressed his disappointment. “It is frustrating that we’ve not been able to do that,” said Ross. “And I think unfortunately is a classic problem of Formula 1."
The idea of reverse grid might have been put to rest for now, but there is a high probability that this proposal will be presented again.
Given the amount of criticism that F1 has faced in the recent years regarding the on track action, reverse grid is just one of the many plans that are being brought up by the F1 management to increase viewership.
In an interview with the official F1 website, Brawn commented: "I thought it was a fascinating contest,"
"And the drivers were a little bit nervous, which I can understand, but we were just asking for the opportunity for three races to try the format.
He further emphasized that the idea could be scrapped altogether, in case it doesn't resonate well with the fans and teams alike. Initially, the reverse grid plan was to be trialed at just 3 races in 2020, namely France, Belgium and Russia.
“We wanted to try a small number of races in 2020, a different format, where it was a reverse grid format on a Saturday based on championship order and that short format race would determine the grid order for the final race.
"If it doesn't work, we put our hands up; if it does work, great."
"If it's something in between, we can work with [that] just to help us develop the format of racing."
With the Silver Arrows' team boss admitting to the rejection himself, it is yet to be known who the other team boss was to have blocked the proposal.
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