Wolff angry over criticism: 'How dare you talk bad of this event!

Fred Vasseur was furious after one of his Ferrari cars sustained heavy damage from a loose water valve cover during the first free practice for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The Italian team boss called it "unacceptable". His colleague Toto Wolff was a lot milder about everything that had occurred.

"It's like Fred said, this is a mega spectacle. It will set a new standard for the sport, and that's important. Then we have track action action and a drain cover that's become undone. There was another, I remember Williams 2012, I think we had it in DTM, which nearly exploded the car. I saw the picture, it is a part of the concrete that was broken out. It's a shame for the people here but these things can happen," Wolff said.

Wolff goes on a rant to a journalist

The incident could mean considerable image damage for F1. But Wolff sees it differently. Responding to a journalist, he said: "This is nothing. We are on Thursday night. We have a free practice session one that we are not doing. They're going to seal the drain covers and nobody's going to talk about that tomorrow morning anymore. It's completely ridiculous. Completely ridiculous. FP1, how can you even dare to try to talk bad about an event that sets new standards, new standards to everything? And then you're speaking about a f****** drain cover that's been undone, that has happened before. That's nothing.

"Give credit to the people that have set up this Grand Prix, that have made this sport much bigger than it ever was. Have you ever spoken good about someone and written a good word? You should about all these people that have been out there. Liberty has done an awesome job. Just because in FP1 a drain cover has become undone, we shouldn't be moaning. The car is broken. That's really a shame. For Carlos, it could have been dangerous. So between the FIA and the track, everybody needs to analyse how we can make sure that this is not happening again. But talking here about the black eye for the sport. On a Thursday evening, nobody watches that in European time anyway."