Toto Wolff slams ‘Teletubbies engineers’ at Hungarian Grand Prix

Toto Wolff was left fuming after the Hungarian Grand Prix, calling out “Teletubbies engineers” working for rival teams.

Wolff’s stern comments were a reference to the traffic encountered by Kimi Antonelli in his defence from Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton. A systems fault meant that lapped cars were only shown manual blue flags at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Toto Wolff takes aim at ‘Teletubbies engineers’

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There were dramas for several drivers when trying to lap cars during the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Oscar Piastri collided with Carlos Sainz’s Williams, while Antonelli and Hamilton lost significant time behind the Audi of Gabriel Bortoleto, allowing Max Verstappen precious breathing room in his drive to second.

The Bortoleto hold-up gave Hamilton a half-look at Antonelli’s Mercedes, but no overtake attempt was launched.

It transpired that a failure of the trackside light panels was fuelling the traffic issues. Drivers were having to rely just on blue flags being manually waved and instructions from their race engineer.

Wolff was not happy with the efficiency from some of these engineers, and expressed that frustration in a unique manner.

Wolff referred to them as “Teletubbies.” That was a nod to the classic children’s television series ‘Teletubbies,’ and its four brightly-coloured main characters.

Following the Hungarian Grand Prix, Wolff told Sky F1: “Cars at the back defending on the Lewis and Kimi fight, it’s just disgraceful from some of the Teletubbies engineers that sit on the pit walls of these teams not telling the drivers what is happening behind.

“I’m just not happy about the whole situation.”

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Antonelli went on to finish the Hungarian Grand Prix in third. Hamilton was hit with a five-second penalty for pit-lane speeding, demoting him to fifth.

With George Russell restricted to seventh after anti-stall issues at the start sent his Mercedes plummeting to the back, Antonelli has extended his championship lead to 50 points over Hamilton. Russell is 59 points off top spot.

In the Constructors’ standings, Mercedes takes a 72-point lead over Ferrari into the summer break.

“But, when I’m going to calm down, we’re taking a solid gap in the Drivers’ Championship into the summer,” Wolff continued. “A good gap in the Constructors’ Championship, and that is a credit to a fast car, to a great team.”

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