Verstappen Responds To Wolff's Rant: 'Don’t Expect Anything Less From Him'

F1
Monday, 20 November 2023 at 02:00
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Max Verstappen reacted to Toto Wolff's dismissal rant concerning the Free Practice one incident at Las Vegas Strip CIrcuit.
Scuderia Ferrari F1 driver Carlos Sainz had an incident during FP1 session. The Spanish driver drove over a loose manhole cover, completely damaging his car.
While this wasn't a mistake of Sainz or his team, he will still receive a 10-grid position drop penalty after changing a power unit that got damaged during the incident.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was asked to comment on the situation by a journalist who suggested the incident could be a black eye for Formula One.
Wolff then went on a rant, saying things like "That is not a black eye, this is nothing" or "You’re speaking about a f***ing drain cover," and completely dismissed the issue.
In the end, the Mercedes team principal admitted its shame for Sainz but emphasized it was not significant in the grand scheme of things and said organizers deserve much more credit.
Red Bull F1 driver Max Verstappen acknowledged the fact that such problem happened before but suggested that is exactly the reason why it should not be repeated as people in F1 should learn from mistakes done in the past.
"That is true of course, that it happened before, but you’re supposed to learn from that. You know that when you go to a street circuit, such things could cause problems. So you should be prepared for that."
On the other hand, the Dutchman suggested Wolff would take completely different position in relation to the incident if it was his car that got damaged:
"And I think if it was his car, he would have spoken differently. But I don’t expect anything less from him."
The fact that Carlos Sainz has to start from the twelfth position instead of second just because organizers did not do their job properly can understandably be a bit outrageous. Verstappen concluded:
"We would have been very angry too, like Ferrari. Absolutely, the entire car is ruined. Carlos also said that he didn’t feel his legs for a couple of seconds, so the accident could have been a lot worse."