Mercedes Team Principal comments on the episode that involved Max and Russell on the match final in Barcelona
The race in Spain is inflamed at the end with the Safety Car that creates a mess in the struggle for third place. In Red Bull they decide to mount the hard rubber on the Verstappen single -seater, the only compound available. However, the choice that has compromised the excellent strategy adopted up to that point, because Leclerc, glued with soft rubber to the Dutchman, takes advantage of it to sink the attack and take the position. In the tussle between the two, Russell also fits and it is here that the spirits come on: Max, which went long after the duel with the Monegasque, returns to the track by cutting a chicane. Given the position on the British of Mercedes, however, he tries to take him back by hitting him on the side in the curve. For this episode Verstappen was then punished with 10 seconds of penalty, which slide him from the fifth to the tenth position, and three points on the license. The contact infuriated Toto Wolff, who does not pull back in Sky: “He behaved like some taxi drivers in Rome or Naples who go crazy in traffic”.
Toto Wolff’s words
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“This is Road Ragestreet anchoring “: Toto Wolff does not use minor terms to describe to Sky the contact that involved Russell and Verstappen. The English term defines the incorrect and aggressive maneuvers of the drivers. Therefore the comment of the Team Principal of Mercedes, which then uses an all -Italian metaphor, does not leave room for the imagination:” It behaved like some taxi drivers in Rome or Naples, without rules. I did not understand what he wanted to do, but I have to understand it because if he did it for anger he is unacceptable. “Then he tries a hypothesis:” He came out of curve 4 without accelerating, I thought he had a car problem. George passed it, but then Max closed the door again. “