Wolff says F1 must wield scalpel not baseball bat in making changes

LONDON, April 20 : Formula One needs to take a surgical approach to rule changes that might improve racing rather than a big hit with a baseball bat, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said on Monday.

Teams, engine makers and key F1 stakeholders were due to meet later in the day to put forward tweaks to the new rules in time for the next race in Miami in May.

"I must really say that the discussions that have been taking place between the group of drivers, the (governing body) FIA, Formula One and the teams have been constructive," Wolff told reporters on a video call.

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

"I think we're coming to good solutions that we're going to ratify hopefully today in order to evolve, because it's only three races in," added the Austrian. "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."

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Mercedes have won all three races this season, the first two one-two, with Italian teenager Kimi Antonelli leading teammate George Russell in the standings.

Red Bull's four-times world champion Max Verstappen, yet to get close to the podium this season, has said the rules are fundamentally flawed and has hinted he could walk away unless some big changes are made.

Wolff said he was "carefully optimistic" that everything would align and played down concerns that the tweaks might not go far enough to placate those who wanted to see drivers go flat out without having to "lift and coast" and be slowed by having to manage the electrical