‘Just part of the fun’ - Wolff’s view of the latest Hamilton-Verstappen feud

Hamilton aimed a stunning jibe at his great rival Verstappen over the Italian Grand Prix weekend when he questioned the pedigree of the Dutchman’s teammates and claimed the Red Bull driver’s F1 success has been “blown up much more” than his own.

Verstappen, who has dominated the 2023 season and claimed a record-breaking 10th consecutive victory at Monza, responded by suggesting that the seven-time world champion is “jealous” of his achievements. 

The two-time world champion added: “I think Mercedes have a very hard time dealing with losing, after all these years of winning so much.”

But Wolff has downplayed the needle between the 2021 title protagonists. 

“First of all, it’s obvious that the drivers like to poke each other a bit,” Wolff said. 

“But then you can say that Lewis has raced three World Champions. He raced Jenson, he raced Fernando and he raced Nico.

“But I don’t want to in any way diminish anybody’s performance because Max in the car is outstanding.

“So it’s just part of the fun.”

Wolff clarified his own view of Verstappen’s dominance, having initially dismissed it during his post-race interview with Sky, in which he said his historic win was simply “for Wikipedia”. 

“For me, these kinds of records are completely irrelevant. They were irrelevant in our good days in Mercedes,” Wolff explained. 

“I don’t know how many races we’ve won, or in a row. I didn’t even know that there was a count on how many races in a row you win.

“Therefore asking me for comment on some achievement is difficult because it never played a role in my own life.

“But the result itself shows that a great driver in a great car are competing on an extremely high level."