Wolff reveals Verstappen regret over huge Silverstone crash

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has revealed his regret over his response to Max Verstappen's huge crash on the first lap of the 2021 British Grand Prix. 

Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton made contact at Stowe corner whilst battling for the lead on the opening lap, before the Dutchman span off the circuit and went heavily into the barrier. 

His accident measured a staggering 51Gs, with Hamilton having received a 10-second stop/go penalty for being judged at fault for the collision. 

Hamilton recovered to win at Silverstone, whilst Verstappen was taken to the hospital. 

As a father, Wolff's regret is that he did not call Jos Verstappen to check on the condition of the three-time world champion.

Instead, Wolff and Mercedes simply took it that the 27-year-old was okay, following a comment from a Red Bull engineer. 

"These guys had been banging wheels, not only that first lap, but they'd been banging wheels all season, and I think that was a moment where the two decided of not yielding that corner," Wolff said on the High Performance Podcast. 

"And it ended up in a situation that, thankfully, Max wasn't hurt. I said before, I could have reacted in a better way, because I heard from one of the Red Bull engineers that he was fine in that respect. That was 'tick the box Max is fine', and we went on to win the race, and he didn't score. 

"So that was important to bounce back in the championship. I felt the driving at times was not clean, and in retrospect I should have just picked up the phone and called Jos and said 'Is he fine?'. 

"Now, Jos clearly would have told me what he was thinking about that situation but that's fine. But I should have, as a father, called the father of the driver and said, just asked [if he was okay], and I didn't. 

"Now we cleared the air on that one, and there were many more instances in that particular year that were not to the standards that we all expect from each other."