Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff launched a scathing attack on rival Formula 1 teams after Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix, accusing “Teletubbie” engineers of failing to properly warn their drivers about blue flag situations during the closing stages of the race.
With a fault in the circuit's marshalling system preventing the usual light panels from displaying blue flags, drivers instead had to rely solely on manual flag signals and radio communication from their teams.
According to Wolff, too many pit walls failed in that responsibility, compromising the fight unfolding at the front.
The issue became particularly costly for Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who was chasing Max Verstappen in the final laps while simultaneously trying to keep Lewis Hamilton behind.
Instead of being waved through cleanly by slower traffic, Antonelli repeatedly encountered cars that continued to defend their position.
Wolff unloads on rival engineers
The Mercedes boss made little effort to hide his frustration, placing the blame squarely on the engineers monitoring the race from the pit wall rather than the drivers themselves.
“The marshalling system was not functioning and cars in the back were defending on a Lewis and Kimi fight,” Wolff told Sky.
“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.”
Antonelli was not the only frontrunner to lose valuable time. Earlier in the race, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri suffered a run-in with a Williams’ Carlos Sainz, while Verstappen had also found himself trapped behind slower cars that failed to move aside quickly despite the blue flag conditions.
Growing increasingly irritated over the radio, the Red Bull driver vented his frustration to race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.
“It’s unacceptable how long that takes here with this car,” Verstappen said. “Mate, what are they doing?”
Moments later, after another delay behind backmarkers, Verstappen's patience finally snapped.
“They should get a penalty. This is fucking ridiculous, these morons, my god.”
Mercedes leaves Budapest frustrated
Despite Antonelli salvaging a podium finish with third place, Mercedes left the Hungaroring disappointed after another race marked by operational setbacks.
George Russell's afternoon effectively unraveled at the start when an engine-related issue dropped him from contention, forcing him to recover from the back of the field before eventually finishing seventh.
Wolff admitted Mercedes had only themselves to blame for the costly launch problem.
“We did a mistake on screwing George’s start,” said Wolff. “It’s just not acceptable and not good enough for us.”
Russell explained there was little he could have done once the problem struck.
“There was nothing I could do, unfortunately,” he said. “I was on the throttle, waiting, and then all of a sudden the engine was going all over the place. It was revving really high, really low.
“Right now we don’t know but it’s added to the list of things that has happened this first half of the year and pray things calm down in the second half.”
For Mercedes, the race ended with another podium thanks to Antonelli, but Wolff's post-race focus quickly shifted from his own team's shortcomings to what he viewed as an avoidable failure by rival pit walls – one that turned routine blue flag management into a flashpoint in the closing laps of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Read also: Piastri says Sainz clash ‘one of the dumbest things I’ve seen’
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