Max Verstappen responds to Toto Wolff’s “ruthless” F1 driver claim

Max Verstappen has responded to Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff’s claim that the era of “ruthless” Formula 1 drivers is over. 

Wolff’s remarks came after Andrea Kimi Antonelli clinched his maiden F1 world title with a third-place finish at last weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez. 

The Austrian, who did not name the targets of his scathing comments, described Antonelli as a new kind of champion and a role model for younger drivers to look up to, rather than the “few entitled” ones and “endless moaners”. 

"This notion of win at all costs, selfish, opportunistic, ruthless for your own benefit, that model of racing driver has died," Wolff said after the race in Mexico. 

"We have a new champion that represents values like humility, like integrity, loyalty, respect, being himself. Should be a role model for many other young drivers in junior formulas. And should be a role model for the few entitled ones in Formula 1, the endless moaners on the radio, the ones that complain, the ones that crash.

"Look at this kid of 20 years and then think what you can do in order to improve. That’s the message to these kids.”

Verstappen was asked for his take on Wolff’s comments in the pre-event press conference during Thursday’s media day ahead of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. 

"I mean, everyone is entitled to their opinion, right? I have nothing else to say, really," the four-time world champion replied.

"Every person is different anyway. I think that’s what is good for Formula 1, because if everyone has the same personality, it’s very boring.”

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso was also asked for his views but the Aston Martin driver declined to comment. 

Verstappen arrives in Brazil second in the world championship standings after securing his third victory of the season last time out. 

“It's a big surprise to be second, to be honest, in the championship, but we take it,” the Dutchman said. “I think we had a lot of difficulties as a team in the beginning. You know, the car was not where we wanted it to be.

“Probably also, we still had to learn quite a bit from the power unit, and I think we really learned a lot throughout the season. The car has naturally been a lot more competitive, of course, lately.

“From my side, it’s just you never really give up, or you just never really settle for P6 or P7. Even when I was in that position or fighting the midfield, I was still trying to do the best that I could get out of the situation – sometimes that is a P6, when the car is not able to perform better.

“Once the car is in a better window, then you can fight further up front and eventually win races. Of course when you win, you take points out of everyone else, so that's been the scene for the last races.

“I’m happy with that, but it also shows that the team never gave up and they were really pushing to find these improvements and understand the difficulties. I'm just happy that within a season, we had such a big turnaround.”