Mercedes boss Toto Wolff delivered a tough verdict on the battle between Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc upon the restart of the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix, describing the pair’s battle for position as “over-racing”.
Proceedings got back underway late in the race, after the Safety Car was brought out amid the retirement of Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Verstappen almost lost his Red Bull on the exit of the final corner, which gave Leclerc a golden opportunity to pinch a certain podium place from the Dutchman.
The pair went wheel-to-wheel, and at high speed approaching Turn 1, they touched, as Leclerc managed to go through into third.
The second Mercedes of George Russell got involved, also getting close to Verstappen, who took to the escape exit at Turn 2 to avoid any further potential contact.
However, Verstappen then clashed with Russell after being told to give back the position, leading Wolff to question the reigning World Champion’s motives in the incident, saying it was “incomprehensible” and that it “wasn’t nice”.
When asked further about the chain of events upon the restart, Wolff was damning in his summary of Verstappen and Leclerc’s racing, deeming it unsafe.
“That shouldn’t happen that at 300-plus kilometres an hour, two cars touch on the straights,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“These two know each other since a long time. I guess there’s a video on YouTube where this is exactly the same discussion they had today, they had in karts when they were 14. ‘He rammed me off the track,’ or what is it? It was a ‘racing incident’.
“I don’t know. Hard racing, over-hard racing, in my opinion.”
Tyre management a big code to crack for 2026
The team’s W16 has taken a fair bit of punishment in the triple-header, with upgrades having appeared to make the car’s performance regress.
Antonelli also has endured a truncation of his overwhelmingly positive start to his F1 campaign, although his Spain DNF was purely down to a mechanical issue.
When asked about what exactly went wrong on the Italian’s car, a power failure later being explained to be the cause, Wolff concluded that the team managed to see an upturn in its recent tyre management issues, saying that such an ability will be crucial amid next season’s new regulations.
“Yeah, it’s difficult to see lots of positives apart from the trajectory that seemed to be a little bit better in tyre management,” he siad. “But we have to look at whether that was an engine failure today, it clearly looks like that at first sight. And that is our strength, so we need to see where that comes from.
“But overall, it’s important to understand our tyres, because that is going to be a factor next year, an important factor next year beyond all the sporting and technical regulations, engine regulations.”
READ MORE – Toto Wolff brands Max Verstappen F1 Spanish GP incident ‘incomprehensible’
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