Italian taxi drivers take aim at Toto Wolff after Max Verstappen comparison

A group of Italian taxi drivers are unhappy with Toto Wolff after the Mercedes boss compared Max Verstappen to them after his controversial clash with George Russell.

Verstappen’s deliberate collision with Russell during the latter stages of the race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya sparked an amusing comparison from Wolff.

After the race in Spain, Wolff labelled Verstappen’s driving as “road rage.”

“This is road rage, like the taxi drivers in Rome or Naples,” Wolff said as quoted by The Guardian.

An Italian journalist replied to Wolff and said: “We have improved a lot in Italy.”

Wolff said: “There’s a lot of aggression in the centre of Rome and Naples, without rules.”

Verstappen was hit with a 10-second time penalty and three penalty points on his licence for the incident, moving him one point away from a race ban.

Wolff’s taxi driver comparison hasn’t gone down well with Rome taxi drivers.

As quoted by Corriere della Sera newspaper, Loreno Bittarelli, president of Rome’s largest taxi cooperative, told Wolff to focus on his own team’s performance.

“Maybe it would be better if Wolff focused on [the performance] of his own team,” Bittarelli said.

Filt-Cgil’s Nicola Di Giacobbe also fired a shot at Wolff, saying: “We drive like a Mercedes since it only goes 30 miles an hour, just like us.”

Another taxi driver, Alessandro, described Rome as a “jungle”, not an F1 track.

“We are the ones who are first in not having accidents, otherwise we would lose our working day,” he said.

“I would like to see Formula One drivers manoeuvring around construction sites, scooters and golf carts the way we do. Rome is now a jungle, not a Formula One track.”

Verstappen will head into next weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix knowing that he can’t afford to be involved in another incident.

The Dutchman will see two of his existing 11 penalty points are removed at the end of the month.