Toto Wolff has been accused of putting on an act after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after footage showed him crowdsurfing at the Formula 1 end-of-season afterparty.
After the controversial ending at the Yas Marina Circuit, the Mercedes team principal had refused to fulfil his media commitments while the German manufacturers protested against the official result.
Wolff had been left angry by the intervention of race director Michael Masi that allowed Max Verstappen to deny Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton a record eighth world title.
Dutch F1 commentator and presenter Olav Mol believes that either Wolff’s trackside reactions or his behaviour at the end-of-season party must have been “theatre”, describing his partying as “very strange”.
“It is of course very strange that you start screaming into a microphone that something is not possible and four hours later videos come out in which you are crowdsurfing and partying,” Mol told Motorsport.com.
“For me, that doesn’t go together. Then I think ‘which of the two is theatre?’ I don’t think it is very nice how Toto Wolff or Mercedes handled this. I didn’t expect that from him.”
Wolff has previously defended his appearance at the afterparty.
The German suggested that he wished to forget the frustration of the manner in which Hamilton was denied, and also celebrate Mercedes again dominating the Constructors’ Championship, which the team secured for an eighth consecutive time.
“It was a matter of going back to the hotel and sulking, or thinking about what had happened,” Wolff explained.
“Or, on the other hand, to celebrate an eighth Constructors’ title with the team.
“And that’s what I did – trying to push aside the frustration about the decision that cost the Drivers’ world title until the next day.”
