A war of words has erupted between Haas driver Esteban Gutierrez and Toto Wolff in the aftermath of the Singapore Grand Prix, with the Mexican driver calling on the Mercedes team boss to show respect to opponents after being criticised by him.
During his media debrief after the race at Marina Bay Circuit, Wolff took a swipe at Gutierrez, “He at least makes it the same for everybody, he doesn’t let anybody overtake.”
“Honestly, we need to say there is a fight for a race win going on between two guys fighting for every tenth, and then you have one guy cruising around and interfering in the race and it happens to always be the same guy.”
“We were shouting to Charlie. Felipe went out of the way and Esteban, who is a lovely boy, continued to cruise out there and was enjoying the gap he had made to Felipe,” added Wolff.
Gutierrez responded, “To ridicule me in public is not a fair way to do things. When Toto Wolff wants something from me, he should tell me to my face. He knows I am an open person. I find such behavior disappointing.”
“People can make fun of me, they can say whatever they want, but there are rules. If I was doing something wrong then I would be penalised, as simple as that,” said the Mexican.
He later wrote on Twitter: “Just because you’re a world champion does not mean that you have the right to treat your opponents disrespectfully, my friend”
Haas team chief Guenther Steiner backed his driver, “I think Esteban’s a little bit of a punching ball at the moment, because I think he was pretty good in the race and he was racing Massa, why should he get out of the way?”
“You get out of the way when he needs to, but I think he was very fair, I must admit. I don’t see a problem with what he did, it’s easy to say when you’re as dominant as Mercedes is, so I would take that comment as a Toto comment,” added Steiner.
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