Wolff slams ‘Teletubbies’ engineers over Antonelli traffic

Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff described some engineers from midfield teams as “Teletubbies” due to his belief that lapped cars interfered in the racing between Kimi Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Antonelli spent the final stint of the race defending from Hamilton after Ferrari opted to take a pit stop for soft tires during a Virtual Safety Car period. With the championship leader on relatively new hard tires, he was able to withstand the pressure, but Wolff was unhappy at how long it took some cars to move out of the way of the battle amid blue flag issues.

“The marshaling system was not functioning and cars in the back were defending [against] a Lewis and Kimi fight,” Wolff told Sky Sports. “It’s just disgraceful from some of the Teletubbies engineers that sit on the pit walls of these teams not telling the drivers what’s happening behind.”

Wolff’s comparison refers to the British children's television show featuring four brightly-colored large characters that communicate largely through gibberish. Oscar Piastri lost time when he suffered contact with Carlos Sainz trying to lap the Williams, while Max Verstappen also called the Racing Bulls drivers “morons” for fighting ahead of him in the latter stages of the race.

On Antonelli’s part, the Italian was less concerned with the challenges faced lapping cars on Sunday.

“I think we maximized the result,” Antonelli said. “Obviously, we were a bit lucky with the VSC, with Oscar’s issue, but other than that, we did the best we could. Conditions were quite difficult, struggling a little bit with oversteer, balance and then understeer. So, conditions were not easy, but I’m happy with the result.”

Although Antonelli had to fight through from seventh on the grid and showed strong pace, he believes race winner Lando Norris was too quick for Mercedes across the distance.

“If I’d started P3, then it would have been another thing. But I think Lando still had the upper hand this weekend, even on us,” he said. “On pure pace, I don’t think I would have been able to challenge him, especially with how difficult it was to follow as well, with a lot of tire overheating. So, I think it would have been very difficult.

“But other than that, it was a great team effort. Also, with strategy, we took a risk initially and then we kind of pulled back a little bit because we were a bit concerned about safety. But still, despite that, they put me in a position to fight for, eventually, the podium. So, it was a great team effort.”