Toto Wolff's four-word reaction after Kimi Antonelli apologised to Max Verstappen

Toto Wolff has revealed his immediate reaction to Kimi Antonelli's crash with Max Verstappen at the Austrian Grand Prix. The Mercedes chief told his rookie sensation 'Well, that wasn't great' after the Italian returned to the team's garage at the Red Bull Ring. Antonelli arrived in Spielberg with momentum behind him after securing his first-ever F1 podium at the Canadian Grand Prix beforehand, but the tables turned at his team principal's home race. The 18-year-old locked his rear tyres at Turn Three on the opening lap, colliding hard with Verstappen, who was fighting Lewis Hamilton and George Russell ahead.

Both drivers were immediately taken out of the race, and Antonelli went over to apologise to Verstappen after stepping out of the cockpit. When he made his way back to the pit lane, Wolff's reaction was understandable. "Yeah, he came into the garage quickly, and I said, 'Well, that wasn't great,' which he obviously knew," the Mercedes boss revealed.

"But yeah, he said the tyres just locked - and we need to analyse it. There's [no] margin for error in our business. It's a shame that Max... or that we took another car out with us. But that can happen. It's happened to the great ones, happened to the inexperienced ones and the experienced ones. It's just part of Formula One."

Indeed, Verstappen himself was no stranger to similar errors during his rookie years. In 2016, he crashed into Romain Grosjean in Monaco, and hit Kimi Raikkonen twice during the Belgian Grand Prix, while also infuriating the usually calm Finn with his defending on the Kemmel straight.

This was not lost on Verstappen when he returned to the media pen after the race. Explaining his conversation on the asphalt with the teenage rookie, he said: "I just asked what happened, because he was the only car that was there with me, with this wheel hanging off.

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"So I was like, 'I'm pretty sure that he hit me'. And yeah, then, of course, I saw the footage once I came back [to the garage], and it happens. Every driver has made a mistake like that in their career, and also, Kimi is a very big talent, so he learns from that, and that's all fine."

While for Antonelli, this was a learning experience, for Verstappen, the consequences were huge. The Dutchman is now 61 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri and 46 points behind his team-mate Lando Norris in second, leaving his hopes of scoring a fifth successive Drivers' Championship title in ruins.