Toto Wolff’s regret: “I should have called Jos Verstappen after Copse crash”. Toto Wolff Reflects on the Copse Incident between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

Toto Wolff Reflects on the Copse Incident
Few moments become iconic symbols of a World Championship clash, but the Copse incident between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen at the 2021 British GP is one of them. The contact, for which Hamilton received a ten-second penalty (which didn’t stop him from winning), cemented the rivalry between the two stars and heightened it to intense levels.

More than three years later, the atmosphere has calmed to the point that Wolff even tried to lure Max Verstappen away from Red Bull, taking advantage of an internal crisis at the Milton Keynes team. What was once a “sporting enemy” has now become a target, a dream that Toto Wolff has temporarily set aside but intends to pursue at the first opportunity.

Toto Wolff’s comments
Toto Wolff has great respect for Max Verstappen, and relations with his father, Jos, have also improved after months of tension stemming from the Copse incident. This tension is something Toto Wolff regrets: “In hindsight, I should have picked up the phone and called Jos to ask how Max was doing. Jos would have clearly told me his view on the incident, and I would have accepted it. But, as a father, I should have called Max’s dad, and I didn’t. Now we’ve cleared things up. And that year saw many other incidents that fell short of the standards we all expect. 2021 will be remembered as one of the toughest years in Formula 1, ending in a situation that wasn’t entirely positive for the sport,” he said on the High Performance podcast, hinting at the events of Abu Dhabi.

“Max and Lewis were wheel-to-wheel the entire time, and at that moment neither of them backed off, and it ended the way it did,” Toto Wolff concluded. “Luckily, he wasn’t hurt. I carry that moment from 2021 as one I’m less proud of because I didn’t empathize enough as a father.” – the Mercedes team boss said.