Toto Wolff: “It’s Max who wins the races, not Red Bull”

Redazione Formu1a.uno, Jaden Diaz
25/06/2024

If any team can be satisfied with their progress in recent weekends, it is certainly Mercedes. The Silver Arrows secured another podium in Barcelona, with Hamilton finishing P3 ahead of Russell in P4. Team principal Toto Wolff was satisfied with this result:

It’s a solid result. It’s the second time we’re on the podium. The car has improved, but you can see that it’s still a few tenths away from catching Norris and Verstappen.

“For us today, it was impossible to fight with them”

Moving on to the technical side, Toto Wolff explains that Mercedes have understood their development path after Imola. Abandoning their previous front-wing concept was an important step in correcting their trajectory:

Our correlation between the wind tunnel and the track didn’t work for a good two years.

Since Imola, all the small updates we brought have improved the balance and they made the W15 a better car. They are small steps, but they make the difference.”

Looking ahead to the next rounds, Wolff believes that Silverstone should be a particularly strong track. However, he is less optimistic for Austria:

“I think Norris and Verstappen have been and will be fast on all circuits. Austria historically hasn’t gone well for us, I don’t know how it will go this year.

“But Silverstone is certainly a fast circuit that we know well where the car has always worked well.”

Observing the progress made by the team, Toto Wolff believes Verstappen’s arrival at Mercedes is possible. Despite Christian Horner’s insistence, Wolff believes that Verstappen is gettable:

“Horner said that he will stay. Let’s see, we leave him with this idea.

“I’ve always said that we have to focus on ourselves in improving the car. And if the car is going to be better, usually all the drivers want to drive as fast as possible, and that’s our priority.

“We need to allow Lewis and George to finish the season at a high level, and then we’ll see if the W15 will be a car that can convince Max.”

There is no shortage of compliments to the Dutch driver from the Mercedes camp. Toto Wolff gave his assessment on the difference Verstappen makes in the Austrian team.

“I think it’s Max who wins the races and not Red Bull. The RB20 is solid, but Perez isn’t doing well.”

“It’s Max who makes all the difference,” concluded the Mercedes team principal.

Autori

SEGUICI SU

Podcast