Mercedes supervisor Toto Wolff has slammed Purple Bull’s Helmut Marko, accusing Kimi Antonelli of deliberately overtaking Lando Norris on the Qatar Grand Prix.
Within the last levels of Sunday night time’s race in Doha, Antonelli jumped extensive at Flip 9, giving championship chief Norris fourth place and giving Norris two essential factors within the title race.
The McLaren driver leads Max Verstappen by 12 factors heading into subsequent weekend’s season finale, Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with teammate Oscar Piastri main by 16 factors in a good three-way title race.
With each level essential at this stage of the season, Purple Bull made some fairly wild claims about Antonelli. Antonelli’s Mercedes group provides engines to McLaren.
When knowledgeable of Marco’s accusations towards Antonelli, Wolff mentioned: “Helmut, bless him. That is full nonsense and it breaks my coronary heart to listen to it.”
“We’re combating for second place within the championship, which is essential to us. You are combating for a possible third place[in the race]. I imply, how silly are you to say one thing like that?”
“And that frustrates me, as a result of I am pissed off with the race itself, the outcome. I am pissed off with the final mistake. I am pissed off with the opposite errors as nicely. And after I hear nonsense like that, it blows my thoughts.”
Wolff ‘clears the air’ with Verstappen’s engineer
Giampiero Lambiase, engineer for race winner Verstappen, additionally raised eyebrows after he appeared to counsel that Antonelli had “let Norris by way of” in a group radio change with the driving force.
Mercedes group principal Wolff revealed that he had spoken to Lambiase to clear the air about his heated remarks.
“I spoke to GP. I noticed him and clearly at that second he was emotional, in all probability as a result of he wanted one place to win the championship. Now they want extra positions,” Wolff defined.
“And I mentioned to him, he simply drove away. There was a bit little bit of time within the entrance nook, after which he slowed down on the method to the left-hander, lowered the throttle and had that second, which might occur, and he misplaced the place. So all the pieces is obvious for the GP. I cleared the air. He mentioned he did not see the scenario.”
“Why would you do one thing like this? Why would you need to intervene in a driver’s championship? I imply, you have to see for your self if you happen to see ghosts. I instructed GP there was fairly a social media storm happening, and GP mentioned, ‘I am sorry if I brought on it.’
