"Not very gracious" Mercedes boss criticized by former champion for comments about Max Verstappen's record: "I think he’s hurting a bit now"

Former F1 world champion Damon Hill feels that Toto Wolff's dismissal of Max Verstappen's record-breaking achievement is weird and 'not very gracious', and remarked his surprise as the team principal does not usually act this way.

The Italian Grand Prix victory for Max Verstappen marked his tenth consecutive Formula 1 world championship win, a fate that has never been achieved by any other driver in the history of the sport. Sebastian Vettel and Alberto Ascari previously held the record with nine victories.

While this is a major achievement, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff sounded rather unimpressed with it. When asked by Sky Sports at Monza, he mentioned that the record is "only for Wikipedia, and nobody reads it anyway." Seemingly, he did not care for it. His response was met with disapproval by many on social media, and recently, the 1996 F1 world champion Damon Hill told Sky Sports that this act was ungracious from Wolff.

"It sounded a bit churlish and not very gracious, and unlike Toto, because he’s usually very sporting."

While Max Verstappen has been dominant this season, Mercedes' struggles to get to the top have continued. Their pace after the Monaco GP earlier in the year was promising, however, they were only the third fastest in Italy, and that form has continued for a while. This, as Damon mentioned, is one of the hurting factors for the Austrian.

"I think he’s hurting a bit now. They know what it’s like to be dominated and they didn’t even get on the podium."

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Martin Brundle also disappointed with Wolff's reaction to Max Verstappen's achievement

F1 presenter for Sky Sports Martin Brundle also expressed his disappointment with the Mercedes team principal. He feels that a similar achievement in some other sport like football, tennis, or rugby would be celebrated across the globe, and this should be the case with Max Verstappen and Red Bull's achievement.

However, the reaction from Toto Wolff had him in "surprise and disappointment," as he said,

"If a tennis player or football or rugby team for example was so utterly complete and dominant, they would rightly be globally lauded at the highest level. As should this pairing be."

"So I was a little surprised and disappointed that Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff played down this achievement over the weekend because they rightly received their due reverence and appreciation during their years of total domination from 2014 to 2020."