Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff accused rival teams of “doing a Ratner” with their complaints about Formula 1.

Speaking after the team’s first defeat of the season at the Austrian Grand Prix, Wolff said the lively race showed complaints about the standard of racing in F1 were too hasty.

Wolff compared the critics to Gerald Ratner, whose notorious 1991 speech describing his jewellery company’s products as “total crap” caused his company’s value to plummet.

“I think all the ones that use the biggest polemic and the hardest words in their rhetoric should remember the next time they start to complain,” said Wolff. “Because we shouldn’t be doing a Ratner and talking our sport down.

Following a processional French Grand Prix which Mercedes won comfortably, Wolff said the Austrian Grand Prix showed a sport at its best: “More than alive, but spectacular with a full crowd, with controversy on-track and some fantastic racing.”

He said he found it amusing that the very teams who had unsuccessfully tried to bring about a switch back to F1’s 2018 tyres during the Austrian Grand Prix weekend had prevailed in the race.

“It’s a very good day for Formula 1,” he said. “Some fantastic racing.

“I want to really say bravo to Pirelli that have stood strong to the opinion, withstand manipulation and deliver us a product that we were able to push until the very end.

“Last year we had some blistering issue, this year the tyre was great and it is a little bit humorous that the ones that complained the most are the ones that pushed the tyre all the way to the end today.”

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2019 F1 season