‘Was it the most intelligent thing I’ve said?’ Wolff addresses ‘Wikipedia’ jibe

Verstappen won his 10th F1 race in a row last time out at the Italian Grand Prix - breaking Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine consecutive wins from 2013.

After the race at Monza, Wolff was asked about Verstappen’s F1 win record.

He said: “Our situation was a little bit different because we had two guys fighting against each other within the team,

“I don’t know whether he [Verstappen] cares about the record. It’s not something that would bother me, any of those numbers. 

"It’s for Wikipedia - nobody reads that, anyway.”

Wolff’s response was met with a raft of criticism, and a fiery response from Verstappen on Thursday in Singapore.

The Austrian acknowledged in the Friday press conference that his comments weren’t wise to make.

“Well obviously when you look at the comments in the circumstances you can think about was it the most intelligent thing that I could have said and maybe not,” Wolff said. 

“But it's always been my mindset. It is something that I've taken from Niki [Lauda], you know, Niki gave his trophies away to get a free car wash. You won't find a lot of memorabilia in my places either because those numbers never mattered for the two of us.

“F1 is a meritocracy. And I said it often during this year that only the best will win world championships and you need to recognise what a great job is being done there. 

“And at the end they will take another big trophy and that 's something that's the most valuable: the best person in the best car wins the world championship.”