Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff clapped back at fans’ conspiracy theories that the team is favouring Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s campaign to the point of sabotage.
Antonelli has had an incredible 2026 season; in just his second year of F1, the Italian youngster has taken a commanding Championship lead. He currently holds an 84-point gap to his nearest competitor – teammate George Russell.
However, his climb to the front has split the Mercedes fanbase. While Antonelli has won races throughout the season with very little misfortune, Russell has had a very different year.
The Briton entered the new regulations with high hopes, having joined Mercedes for the 2022 regulations and stayed as the team navigated the downforce era’s difficulties.
With the 2026 regulations, fortunes shifted at Mercedes, with a loophole in the compression ratio giving them a track advantage. Russell seemed to be the obvious championship contender, winning the opening round of the season before his challenge fell apart.
In Sepang, Russell suffered his third DNF of the season. However, it wasn’t his first reliability issue, and Mercedes’ problems cost him countless points. Antonelli hasn’t escaped reliability issues, but he’s had the more fortunate side of the garage.
This has led many fans to theorise that the team are favouring Antonelli, and some go so far as to say Mercedes are actively hindering Russell to give Antonlii the advantage.
When these theories were brought up to Wolff, he told the media ahead of this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix that those espousing them were ‘brainless’.
“They’re brainless, whoever thinks that. I mean, it’s completely nonsensical,” he said. “We’ve had it in the past with Lewis fans. I mean, literally, I don’t know what’s going on.
“Do they think I have a button that says, ‘George engine failure now’, or that we’re disadvantaging one driver against the other when we are fighting for a Constructors’ Championship, when we have always had the mindset of providing everybody equal material?”
Toto Wolff tells theorists to ‘watch Teletubbies’
Wolff then went on to brush off the claims as people ‘lashing’ out behind their screens. Admitting that it’s a large part of the internet nowadays.
“But I guess this is maybe where social media goes today. People hide behind their screens, and then they lash out.” He said.
“There’s a lot of polarisation going on, and sometimes I read what people write. I find it hilarious. These people really contribute to my own entertainment when they are abusing the team or me. I’m Satan, I’ve heard. So, yeah, overall funny.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown interjected to Wolff that he needed ‘Silver Arrows rules’, referencing its controversial Papaya Rules plan. Wolff laughed and joked back: “You have the exclusive rights to fruits, Papaya Rules, so we need to come up with something better.”
He finally quipped that the people who believe Mercedes would sabotage one side of the garage to benefit the other are better suited to watch ‘Teletubbies ‘ or Mickey Mouse.
“But really, zero understanding and respect for people who come up with these things. They should, rather than watching Formula 1, watch Teletubbies or some Mickey Mouse.”
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