Wolff brushes off Bottas conflict of interest claims

Williams driver Bottas is regarded as the odds-on favourite to replace retiring champion Nico Rosberg at Mercedes – and the Finn's chances of joining the German marque were boosted by the news that Felipe Massa has agreed terms to stay at Williams for 2017.

With Wolff serving as Mercedes F1 chief and being part of Bottas' management team, the suggestion of a conflict of interest was raised most recently by Red Bull's Helmut Marko in a joint interview with Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda on Servus TV.

Lauda's response was: "It [the management role had] been set up before Toto became CEO of the race team. If Bottas were to come to us, Wolff cannot be his manager anymore."

Talking to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Wolff said there would be no conflict of interest in Bottas' potential move to Mercedes - and confirmed he would step down from the Finn's managerial team if the move came off.

"I'm not an idiot. When I joined Daimler four years ago, I signed a contract, so I can't manage or have a commercial interest in a Mercedes driver," Wolff said.

"It isn't a problem. The problem does not arise. Whoever is talking about a conflict of interest does not understand F1."

Wolff insisted also that the Mercedes driver line-up decision has not yet been made.

"We have not yet made the decision because it involves more than just the driver and our team," he said. "We must have respect for other teams.

"Valtteri is an option but we also know how important he is for Williams. It's a delicate situation which requires us to move cautiously, so we've decided to take our time with it."