Alpha Tauri have branded calls from Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff for Yuki Tsunoda’s retirement from the Dutch Grand Prix to be investigated as “insulting”.
Wolff raised questions surrounding Tsuonda’s retirement and suggested the actions of Red Bull’s junior team “changed the outcome of the race”, leading to Max Verstappen’s victory and ending any chance Lewis Hamilton had of winning for Mercedes.
Tusonda retired from the race only four corners after returning to the pits – triggering a virtual safety car that effectively granted Verstappen a free stop. It was followed by speculation on social media that Alpha Tauri had intentionally helped Red Bull by retiring Tsunoda while he was out on track, as well as a number of blatantly sexist and misogynistic comments towards Red Bull’s head of strategy Hannah Schmitz.
A statement from AlphaTauri read: “It is incredibly disheartening to read some of the language and comments directed at our team and towards Red Bull’s head of strategy, Hannah Schmitz.
“Such hateful behavior cannot be tolerated, and to entertain accusations of foul play is unacceptable, untrue and completely disrespectful towards both Hannah and us.
“We have always competed independently, fairly and with the highest levels of respect and sportsmanship.
“Yuki had a failure that the team didn’t immediately detect which caused him to stop on track. To suggest anything different is insulting and categorically incorrect.”
Mercedes did not formally ask the FIA to investigate Tsunoda’s retirement, but Wolff said he would if the circumstances were different and his team were in a title battle with Red Bull.
“If we were fighting for a championship, that would be something that I would look closely at,” Wolff said.
“What needs to be investigated for the safety of drivers, and everybody out there is that the driver stopped, unbuckled, did a full lap, came in, the problem wasn’t solved, they put the seatbelts back on and he drove out and stopped the car again.
“That has probably changed the outcome of the race which we maybe could have won.”
After the race, Tsuonda could not say what the fatal issue was, but the stewards determined his retirement was due to a problem with the differential.
