Toto Wolff puzzled by Max Verstappen’s “incomprehensible” move on George Russell

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff described Max Verstappen’s controversial manoeuvre on George Russell during the 2025 F1 Spanish Grand Prix as “incomprehensible” and admitted he was confused by the reigning world champion’s intentions.

Russell and Verstappen clashed in the final laps at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in a dramatic moment that saw the Red Bull driver slow down on the approach to Turn 4.

As Russell got ahead into the corner, Verstappen appeared to crash into the Mercedes driver deliberately.

Verstappen was hit with a 10-second time penalty as a result, dropping him to 10th in the final order.

Verstappen was irked by Russell's move into Turn 1 on the previous lap as he was told by Red Bull to give the place back.

Speaking after the race, Wolff revealed Mercedes initially thought Verstappen had a car issue, only to hear later that he had been instructed to let Russell past.

“So I just heard actually that Max had the call to let him past, right? We were under the impression in the race that he had a problem with the car, and that’s why he was so slow getting out of four,” Wolff told media, including Crash.net.

“I mean, if it was road rage, which I can’t imagine, because it was too obvious, that is not good. But the thing is I don’t know what he aimed for.

“Did he want to let George past, and immediately re-pass? Put the car, George the car ahead, and then like the old DRS games, letting him past at the right way. Or… for me, it’s just incomprehensible. But again, I don’t know exactly what the motivations were, and I don’t want to judge on it and say this was road rage etc. Let’s see what his arguments are. It wasn’t nice.

When asked again about the incident again, Wolff said he didn’t want to “jump to conclusions”.

Wolff’s philosophical view

It’s not the first time Verstappen has shown his frustration on track.

Verstappen deliberately ran Lando Norris off the track on two occasions in Mexico last year.

In 2021, Verstappen did everything he could to try and beat Lewis Hamilton with a series of high-profile incidents in Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

Commenting more generally, Wolff said it’s a “pattern with the great” sportsmen but admitted, “I don’t know where it comes from”.

“There’s a pattern that the great ones, whether it’s in motor racing or in other sports, you just need to have the world against you, and then perform at the highest possible levels,” Wolff added.

“And that’s why sometimes these greats don’t recognize that actually the world is not against you, you have made a mistake, or you have screwed up, etc etc. And we haven’t seen any of these moments with Max for many years now. The year 2021, that happened, and I don’t know where it comes from.”