Toto Wolff encounters a brand new enemy away from F1 after comments to Italian media | F1 | Sport

Christian Horner, step aside. Toto Wolff has a new adversary – Rome’s taxi drivers. The Mercedes boss has ruffled feathers amongst the capital’s cabbies following his less than complimentary remarks made in response to Max Verstappen‘s road rage incident in Barcelona.

Verstappen aggressively collided with George Russell during Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, earning himself a penalty that relegated him to 10th place. It was Wolff’s commentary on this event that sparked ire amongst Italy’s taxi drivers.

In a post-race interview with Sky Sports Italy, Wolff referred to the Verstappen incident as “This is road rage, like the taxi drivers in Rome or Naples.”

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

While there’s been no official response from Naples’ taxi drivers, their Roman counterparts are far from pleased with the Mercedes chief. Loreno Bittarelli, president of taxi cooperative 3570, retorted in Corriere della Sera: “Wolff’s joke? Maybe it would be better for him to focus on [the performance] of his own team.”

An unnamed cabbie boasted to an Italian newspaper: “We are better than F1 drivers, they wouldn’t last an hour in the traffic of the capital. I would like to see those drivers drive like us among construction sites, traffic, scooters, golf carts. Rome is a jungle these days, not Formula 1 tracks.”

Nicola Di Giacobbe from the taxi union Filt-Cgil took a cheeky jab at Mercedes for their recent dip in form after years of dominance from 2014 to 2021. “We drive like a Mercedes, as it goes 30 miles per hour like us,” he joked.

Verstappen has openly accepted blame for his rash behaviour, while Red Bull‘s team principal Horner revealed that the Dutchman has offered private apologies to his team. George Russell, on the receiving end of the incident, lamented it was a “shame” to see a four-time F1 champion engage in such erratic conduct.

Reflecting on the incident, Mercedes boss Wolff identified a common trait among top athletes, especially those under frequent scrutiny. The Austrian observed: “There’s a pattern that I’ve recognised with the great ones, whether it’s in motor racing or in other sports. You just need to have the world against you, and then you perform at the highest possible level.

“That’s why, sometimes, these greats don’t recognise that, actually, the world is not against you, it’s just you who has made a mistake, or you’ve screwed up. We haven’t seen any of these moments with Max for many years now. I know 2021, that happened, but I don’t know where it comes from.”