Wolff explains "f*** them all" radio message after F1 sprint

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff insists his “fuck them all” radio message to Lewis Hamilton at the end of sprint qualifying in Brazil was not a dig aimed at Formula 1’s rule-makers. 
Toto Wolff (GER) Mercedes AMG F1 Shareholder and Executive Director.
Toto Wolff (GER) Mercedes AMG F1 Shareholder and Executive Director.
© xpbimages.com

Hamilton was sent to the back of the grid for the Saturday sprint race after his car was found to have breached a DRS technical infringement following qualifying at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. 

But the seven-time world champion recovered superbly to pull off 15 overtakes in just 23 laps on his charge to fifth. Hamilton will start Sunday’s grand prix from 10th due to changing his engine ahead of the weekend. 

After the sprint race, Wolff said over team radio: “Lewis brilliant job, damage limitation. Fuck them all,” to which Hamilton replied: “Copy. It’s not over yet.” 

When asked if his message was one of frustration due to feeling hard done by, Wolff replied: “I obviously didn’t mean it towards any of the regulations. 

“It is generally a mindset we have that that sometimes when there is hardship you need to build up resilience, and that is meant by saying fuck them all. 

“Yesterday the car was being tested and today two hours before the race we got the information we were disqualified and that is, in a way, sad, because there’s procedures in Formula 1 - a certain modus operandi - and a protocol you have to follow. 

“And we had a car that wasn’t in breach of regulations of the 85mm slot gap. We failed successive tests by the tiniest of margins and in the past that would have meant fix it. 

“We have seen it with the Red Bull rear wing last weekend. We have had many bargeboard things or failures that were being put back because the FIA has our cut drawings of the wings. 

“We wanted to leave the wing with them so they could cut it into 1000 pieces, but we weren’t allowed to look at the wing because it was simply damaged through the qualifying session. None of these arguments counted. 

“To be fair enough stewards did the job, we failed that one test, and their argument needs to be respected.” 

Meanwhile, Hamilton’s race engineer Peter Bonnington had a cheeky dig at Max Verstappen's €50,000 fine for touching Hamilton's rear wing in parc ferme after qualifying. 

"Lewis just make sure you don't touch any of the other cars or check them out in any way," he said as Hamilton parked up at the end of the race. 

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