Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has condemned a group of “simply brainless” fans in Austria following allegations of abusive behaviour in Austria.
Several fans spoke on social media over their negative experience at the Red Bull Ring, where they were allegedly subjected to derogatory terms, including homophobic and sexist remarks.
F1 asserted that it would look into the situation and speak to those affected by the comments.
Prior to the start of the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday, seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton stated that he was “disgusted” by the allegations.
Wolff too has now criticised the incidents.
“It’s just people being stupid,” Wolff said. “I have no other explanation for people abusing — in whatever way, sexist, hedonistic, homophobic or racist – you are just simply brainless.
“And no alcohol can excuse that. The sport polarises and triggers emotions, we want that.”
However, Wolff says people must be careful not to generalise the supporters of one entire fan group due to the actions of a select few.
“We shouldn’t condemn all of them but put these few idiots out,” he said. “We mustn’t come across as though we are condemning a group of fans, because we are not.
“I have seen them climbing on the fences and when Lewis stood up I looked at them and nobody was booing, and they were hardcore and drank and there was still no booing.
“I think we didn’t see any booing, on a positive note, when you see how many Max fans are out there, loyal Max fans, and they got the message and recognised how you behave in a sportsmanlike way.
“You don’t need to cheer [accidents] and they remained silent [while Hamilton was speaking] and I thought that was good to see.
“Overall, 99.9 percent are great fans whether you are Max, Lewis or Charles [Leclerc] and the one percent put a shadow over them, but they are from yesterday and to them we say ‘stay at home, we don’t want you here’.”
You know what really pisses me off about Mercedes, ALL THEY DO IS COMPLAIN ABOUT EVERYTHING !!!! This time instead of it being Hamilton or Russell; it’s Toto Wolff. What he needs to do before making public comments is tell his driver Lewis Hamilton to apologize for his remarks about the fans after his crash on Saturday. As far as the allegations are concerned, that’s all they are, ALLEGATIONS. There’s nothing substantiating them, just the words from a Team member of a team that consistently complains about someone with every race. I love how Hamilton was disgusted by the allegations, but it was o.k. for him to lash out at fans who ALLEGEDLY cheered after he crashed?! The fact that Hamilton knew definitively that all the fans in Austria were cheering when he crashed is laughable. Hamilton is a has been, no one gives a damn about him winning or losing.
Wolff also said that “it’s just people being stupid”, I think Wolff should get suspended from a race and he and hamilton should get fined for their comments. It’s also funny after Wolff made the stupid people comment he immediately did damage control as to not get backlash for his generalized comment. It’s also laughable that Wolff said “99.9% of the people are great, but the 1 % put a shadow over them.” Well Wolff it’s not 1% it’s actually 0.1%. LMAO He complained about 0.1% of the people?!!!!! Now that’s mind blowing. Wolff shouldn’t talk about people being stupid when he can’t even do math correctly. Wolff needs to go to any sporting event and he will see people consuming alcohol and acting inappropriately, should we ban all those people simply because they’re drinking and acting inappropriately?! If that happens then F1 future races are going to be every empty events because all the fans are going to be banned for life. I think that’s an inappropriate statement to be made about .1% of the people. Come on Wolff, Hamilton and Riccardo grow up and put on your big boy pants. GET OVER IT !!!
Sunday night Wolf made inappropriate comments about the “category”. He said “F&^% off” “If you are part of that category, f*&^% off.” He also went on to say, “We need to target these guys and pick them out and say ‘you’ stay away, we don’t want you if you are part of that group.” Well I suggest that Wolff stay away because his comment is inappropriate, demoralizing. He lashes out against 0.1% of the people acting inappropriately and then in the next sentence he lashes out inappropriately toward a “group” or “category” of people. Hey Wolff that the definition of racism, something you said was alleged from fans. Well with him here and now that’s not alleged because it’s quoted being said from him. I think he needs to be suspended or banned from F1 and fined significantly.
The be fair, Lulu, Toto & Co. do themselves no favors when it comes to getting F1 fans to like and respect them. They have pushed the buttons of fans for nearly a decade now with sheer utter nonsense. At some point, people will start to push back, and it looks like they might have now. As for the Brits behavior towards Verstappen, those people are simply inbred dolts to begin with — nothing new there. They will cheer for anything associated with a Union Jack, e.g., mega-moron Lewis Hamilton. After all, they are the same people who literally gave/sold their firearms to the government some decadesa go and are now under total 24/7 totalitarian surveillance, all the while criminal thug foreigners are free to enter and do what they wish while regular citizens are unarmed. So yeah, those people are dumber than dirt.