Mercedes boss Toto Wolff utilised his often inventive use of the English language by lambasting rival Formula 1 teams’ engineers for a lack of action during the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The race at the Hungaroring, the last before the summer break, gave a drivers an additional challenge they were not expecting, in the form of a system failure involving blue flags.
This meant that backmarkers were not alerted when leading cars were trying to lap them, causing them, in turn, to encounter a little extra difficulty when overtaking them.
Oscar Piastri was the most notable of these drivers, who collided with Carlos Sainz on the approach to Turn 3, as the Williams driver was in the midst of his own battle for position with countryman Fernando Alonso.
Sainz explained the system failure, whose manoeuvre had been labelled as “unacceptable” by Piastri, who was forced to take evasive action.
Lewis Hamilton was another driver who suffered from the circumstances, as did Andrea Kimi Antonelli, with both men getting stuck in traffic on their way to fourth and third places.
Antonelli’s plight in the situation triggered his Team Principal Wolff to colourfully opine that engineers of said backmarkers should have done more to alert them of the upcoming leaders.
“The marshalling system [was] not functioning and cars at the back defending in the Lewis and Kimi fight,” the Austrian told Sky Sports F1.
“It’s disgraceful from some of the Teletubbies engineers that sit on the pit walls of these teams, not telling their drivers what’s happening behind.”
The incident is another that F1 would have been happy to have done without, having already been at the centre of a timing failure during the Monaco Grand Prix that led to a number of wrongful time penalties issued to drivers, which contributed to Pierre Gasly losing, and then regaining by appeal, his third place in the race.
READ MORE – George Russell adds Hungary startline setback as another ‘for the list’
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