Toto Wolff slams Lewis Hamilton's F1 rivals in rant over Italian GP penalty

04 September 2023 , 09:39

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Toto Wolff slams Lewis Hamilton's F1 rivals in rant over Italian GP penalty

Toto Wolff took aim at "pretty much every" Formula 1 driver as he heaped praise upon Lewis Hamilton for his sportsmanship after crashing into Oscar Piastri.

The Mercedes racer made contact with the Aussie's McLaren during Sunday's Italian Grand Prix. While Hamilton escaped without picking up any damage, the front wing of Piastri's car was bent and needed replacing.

That required a second pit stop which effectively ended the F1 rookie's chance of scoring points. Hamilton was given a five-second time penalty by the stewards over the incident, but it was inconsequential as he finished too far ahead of Alex Albon to lose sixth place even when that was taken into account.

He was remorseful, though, as he made a point of going straight over to Piastri in parc ferme after the race to apologise. And, speaking to reporters at Monza, he took full responsibility for causing the collision.

"I enjoyed the battle I had at the end, but a bit unfortunate that I misjudged the gap that I had with Piastri," he said. "It was totally my fault and I went and apologised to him straight afterwards. We move on."

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Piastri accepted that apology and told Sky Sports: "The one with Lewis, he came over a bit more than he thought. The stewards gave their verdict and Lewis apologised, so there's nothing more I can ask for or do at that point."

Mercedes chief Wolff expressed his pride with the way Hamilton had conducted himself. But, as he heaped praise upon his driver, he took a swipe at others on the F1 grid – without mentioning any names – claiming that few of them would have had the moral fortitude to do the same.

"That was Lewis' mistake," the Austrian said of the incident. "I think a five-second penalty for that is it what the menu says. These things happen, it's hard racing. You've got to overtake here and seen a few of these. So it's justifiable."

And regarding Hamilton's actions after, he added: "He's very sportsmanlike with these things. He is the only one that I see out there admitting, saying, he got this wrong. We just had a chat, he didn't see him on the right and it goes on [him]. I think that kind of sportsmanship is what you need to admire with him. Pretty much everyone [else] is always complaining and moaning, just to try to not get a penalty."

Daniel Moxon