Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff launches extraordinary 'Teletubbies' rant at rival teams

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has described some of his rivals' race engineers as 'teletubbies', following a difficult Hungarian Grand Prix.

Backmarkers getting in the way of the frontrunners was a theme of the race at the Hungaroring, with Williams' Carlos Sainz even making contact with McLaren's Oscar Piastri when he was chasing after a race win.

Traffic got in the way of Mercedes' championship leader Kimi Antonelli towards the end of the race too, almost allowing Lewis Hamilton to get by him for third.

It was revealed after the race that there was a fault with the blue flag system which is used by FIA race stewards to tell backmarkers to move out of the way when they are being lapped by faster cars.

When a blue flag is waved or signified via the FIA's light panels, said driver must get out of the way at their earliest convenience, and they will be punished if they fail to do so after being given three warnings.

But the system seemed to be showing even to drivers at the front of the race, with both Lando Norris and Antonelli revealing in the cooldown room that they had been shown blue flags at various points in the race.

Nonetheless, Antonelli's boss Wolff was disappointed with some of the smaller teams' race engineers, slamming them for not telling their drivers when there were faster cars behind.

F1 RESULTS TODAY: Hungarian Grand Prix times and positions

Wolff fumes at race engineers

Wolff suggested to Sky Sports F1 that some of the race engineers could have been doing a much better job during the Hungarian GP, describing them as 'Teletubbies', while also blasting the backmarkers' refusal to let frontrunners through as 'unacceptable'.

Teletubbies was a British TV programme in the early 2000s aimed at very young children, with four characters known Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Lala and that resembled toddlers and talked gibberish.

When Antonelli approached a gaggle of cars towards the end of the race, it was four drivers who were scrapping over the last couple of points-paying positions, which potentially led to them not wanting to yield as easily to the faster cars coming through.

"The cars in the back defending is just not acceptable and not good enough from us," Wolff said. "And you know, then the marshalling system not functioning. And cars in the back defending from Lewis and Kimi.

"I just find disgraceful from some of the Teletubbies engineers that sit on the pit walls of these teams, not telling the drivers what's happening behind.

"And so, overall, a day I'm just, I'm just not happy about the whole situation. But when I'm going to calm down, we're taking solid gap in the drivers' championship over the summer."

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