F1 needs 'moaners' like Verstappen, it cannot afford 22 Antonellis and Toto Wolff is wrong

Kimi Antonelli is the F1 world champion, and you know what, good on him. It really couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Antonelli is also a deserving champion - the Italian has been immense this year, winning the title with still four races to go.

After he became the youngest champion in the sport's history and Italy's first since Alberto Ascari in 1953, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff had an interesting thing to say about the 20-year-old and the future of the sport.

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Toto Wolff's model F1 driver

He said: "This notion of win at all costs, selfish, opportunistic, ruth­less for your own benefit, that model of racing driver has died.

"We have a new champion that represents values: humility, integrity, loyalty, respect. Being himself. He should be a role model for many other young drivers.

“He should be a role model for the few entitled ones in Formula One. The endless moaners on the radio. The ones that complain, the ones that crash.

"Look at this kid of 20 years and then think what you can do in order to improve. That’s the message to these kids.”

In theory Wolff is right - Antonelli is fine example of how one should conduct themselves in a human as well as sporting sense.

You won't find a bad word being said about him and he is hugely popular in the paddock. Sky Sports' F1 presenter Natalie Pinkham couldn't fight back the tears interviewing him after the race on Sunday night.

Wolff's values are admirable, but it's not good for F1

But the reality is Wolff is wrong. F1 cannot afford to have a grid full of nice-guy Antonellis. There is room for them no doubt, but for capturing wider interest it's a recipe for disaster having 22 of them.

Whether you like it or not, F1 absolutely thrives on drama, notoriety, and drivers who hate each other's guts.

They tend to be drivers as Wolff describes 'complainers' and 'moaners' and you only have to go back to Sunday's Mexican Grand Prix to find drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen fitting both descriptions given their interactions with teams, or in the Dutchman's case a Red Bull colleague in Liam Lawson!

A few days on from Mexico and with the potential exception of Italy, the F1 world is only focused on one thing and that is the ongoing fallout between Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. It was arguably the biggest story on Sunday too at the Mexican Grand Prix, overshadowing Antonelli's title achievement.

Ferrari's civil war is F1's No.1 story post Mexico, yet if both drivers ignored self interest and pandered to the team, their weekend story of a one-two finish is a mere footnote, and within 24 hours it would have been old news.

F1's biggest stories come from division

To hammer home the point further. Think of the biggest F1 moments in the last 10 years and without doubt the top two are the bitter Hamilton vs Nico Rosberg Mercedes rivalry ending in 2016 and the explosive Verstappen vs Hamilton title battle in 2021.

Verstappen vs Hamilton, Red Bull vs Mercedes, accusations of dangerous driving, parc ferme breaches, bitter verbal exchanges and this was all before Abu Dhabi 2021.

It was as bitter as F1 rivalries get, and fans lapped it up. It took F1 more mainstream than 'Drive to Survive'.

The controversy following Abu Dhabi 2021 was huge, people who had never seen an F1 race in their life were talking about it.

You simply do not get the same buy-in from the general public and even fans if everyone avoids confrontation and doesn't generate some energy into an F1 weekend.

F1 is a sport but also an entertainment business, which means it needs drama beyond cars. That doesn't come from 22 well-mannered drivers no matter how talented they are.

F1 has only three massive stars

Right now we have three stars who can generate interest based on their character and they are Verstappen, Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

All three are extraordinary, larger than life personalities who have been known to say things other F1 drivers wouldn't go near - and that makes them household names (as well as the the fact they are champions).

Two of them are in their 40s and have F1 retirements on the horizon, Verstappen is staying around but who really can fill the void left by the other two?

Like it or not, the most captivating title battles need an edge to them, something along the lines of a protagonist and antagonist which bizarrely can flip depending on the fans of each driver.

For what it's worth I've watched F1 for over 30 years and I'll always watch whether its 22 Antonellis or not.

But if F1 wants to keep riding the mainstream it simply can not allow the drivers most likely to generate drama to leave the sport - and that means the 'moaners' and the 'complainers', Toto.

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Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

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