Toto Wolff: “Max Verstappen behaving like past greats—blames the world instead of owning mistakes”. Toto Wolff criticized Max Verstappen after the Spanish GP clash with Russell.

The words of the Mercedes team principal
“It’s simply incomprehensible, but I don’t want to jump to the conclusion that it was a deliberate outburst behind the wheel. The penalty came during the race, so the matter is closed. If he did it on purpose, that’s absolutely not acceptable.” In a press conference, Toto Wolff reiterated what he had already said live on television after the Spanish GP.

At the end of the race, Max Verstappen hit George Russell at Turn 5, going straight into the Briton’s Mercedes instead of turning into the apex. The stewards handed the Dutchman a 10-second penalty, dropping him to tenth in the final classification. Additionally, with 3 penalty points added to his license, Max Verstappen is now at 11 out of 12, meaning he must be extremely cautious over the next two races to avoid a race ban (after which he’ll recover some points).

Toto Wolff then elaborated on what might have been going through Max Verstappen’s mind during that chaotic moment in the race: “It’s a ‘pattern’ we’ve seen in great champions of the past, across all sports, not just F1. They prefer to believe the world is against them to push themselves to the limit, when in reality they’ve simply made a mistake, and it’s not the world turning against them. We hadn’t seen this kind of behavior from Max in years, but I haven’t forgotten 2021.” – the Mercedes team boss concluded.