Guenther Steiner has called out Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff for "self-promotion" after Kimi Antonelli scored his maiden Formula 1 victory at the Chinese Grand Prix.
After the Italian driver took the chequered flag at the Shanghai International Circuit, Wolff came over the team radio to congratulate him. "'He’s too young. We shouldn’t put him in a Mercedes. Put him in a smaller team. He needs the experience. Look at the mistakes he makes.' Here we go, Kimi. Victory," the team chief said.
"Oh, it was total self-promotion," Steiner said on The Red Flags Podcast. "Make sure that everybody knows that I didn't do anything wrong. And Toto wouldn't need that. But I think he has got a little bit of a complex there. I mean, the guy won. You don't need to explain it now, Toto.
"Everybody believes it. You can see it, you can feel it, you can hear it. You don't have to tell everybody.
"And in the end, Kimi did it and not Toto. We always have to respect that as well."
Wolff had faced scrutiny when he signed Antonelli to take the spot left by seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton due to his quick rise through the motorsport ladder, skipping Formula 3 to join Formula 2 in 2024, and his age. But his race victory in China has somewhat silenced those critics.
"When things go bad, there are people who come out and say, 'That was a bad decision,' and 'Mercedes took too much risk.' And it was never really harsh criticism because people recognise the talent that he has," Wolff told the media in China.
"But there were many voices within the sport and outside that said, 'That was a mistake to do.' So it's nice to have a little revanche. But obviously, it's one race win.
"And this sport that we live in is manic depressive. Today, it's great. In two weeks, we are in Japan, and he puts it in the wall, and people say he's too young. So I think we need to just keep the feet on the ground."
