Italian taxi drivers have told Toto Wolff to focus on his own team’s performance after he likened Max Verstappen’s antics in Spain to the “road rage” of “taxi drivers in Rome or Naples”.

As the chirps came thick and fast, one taxi driver claimed they actually drive like a Mercedes – “only 30 miles an hour”.

Toto Wolff finds an unexpected critic after ‘road rage’ claim

Verstappen courted controversy at the Spanish Grand Prix when he clashed with George Russell in a move that the Mercedes driver said “felt deliberate”.

Having lost third place to Charles Leclerc after a Safety Car restart, Verstappen was attacked by Russell but stayed ahead of the Briton as they banged wheels and Verstappen headed down the Turn 1 escape road.

He came out ahead of Russell and was told by Red Bull to give the position to his rival. But slowing for Turn 5 and appearing to let the Mercedes driver through, Verstappen jinked to the right and hit the W16.

He was given a 10-second penalty and three penalty points on his Super Licence as the stewards ruled the ‘collision was undoubtedly caused by the actions of Car 1’.

More on Max Verstappen’s Spanish GP antics

👉 Data exposes bizarre Max Verstappen action in George Russell clash

👉 F1 penalty points: Verstappen dangerously close to race ban after Russell clash

Questions were asked about whether Verstappen had deliberately turned in a Russell, which was put to Wolff when he spoke with the media, including PlanetF1.com, after the race.

“If it was road rage, which I can’t imagine because it was too obvious, that is not good,” he said. “For me, it’s just incomprehensible.

“But again, I don’t know exactly what the motivations were and I don’t want to jump on it and saying: ‘This was road rage or etc.’ Let’s see what his arguments are. It wasn’t nice.”

But speaking with the Italian media, Wolff reportedly did state that it was road rage.

“This is road rage, like the taxi drivers in Rome or Naples,” the Guardian reports him as having said.

A journalist defended his country, saying: “We have improved a lot in Italy.”

Wolff replied: “There’s a lot of aggression in the centre of Rome and Naples, without rules.”

Italy’s taxi drivers were not impressed with Wolff’s claims.

“Maybe it would be better if Wolff focused on [the performance] of his own team,” the president of Rome’s largest taxi cooperative, Loreno Bittarelli, told Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Filt-Cgil’s Nicola Di Giacobbe landed a dig, saying: “We drive like a Mercedes since it only goes 30 miles an hour, just like us.”

In fact if you ask taxi driver Alessandro, Italian taxi drivers are more skilled than Formula 1 drivers.

“We are the ones who are first in not having accidents, otherwise we would lose our working day,” he said.

“I would like to see Formula One drivers manoeuvring around construction sites, scooters and golf carts the way we do. Rome is now a jungle, not a Formula One track.”

As for the question of whether Verstappen’s actions were deliberate, the Dutchman admitted the morning after the race that his move on Russell was “not right and shouldn’t have happened.”

“We had an exciting strategy and good race in Barcelona, till the safety car came out,” he wrote on social media.

“Our tyre choice to the end and some moves after the Safety Car restart fuelled my frustration, leading to a move that was not right and shouldn’t have happened.

“I always give everything out there for the team and emotions can run high.

“You win some together, you lose some together.”

He, however, stopped short of issuing an apology although Christian Horner revealed “Max apologised in the debrief for his incident with Russell” which cost him and Red Bull points in the championship.

The driver trails Oscar Piastri by 49 points after nine races while Red Bull have dropped to fourth in the teams’ classification, 218 behind runaway championship leaders McLaren.

Read next: Why Mercedes remains optimistic for F1 2025 season despite power unit flubs