Toto Wolff talks about not being able to catch Max Verstappen in F1 2024, as they are realistic of the fight with Ferrari, McLaren and Aston Martin.
How Red Bull and Verstappen have started their 2024 F1 season, it is pretty certain that the Dutchman will be difficult to beat this year. He continues to drive in another league, even though Sergio Perez and even Ferrari seems to have closed in on him.
For Mercedes, how they have started, it is certainly a distant scene to challenge Verstappen and Wolff knows it too. “No one is going to catch Max this year. He’s driving and the cars are just spectacular,” he said to media. “You can see the way he manages the tyres. And basically this season now is the best of the rest.
“That’s the fight that’s on. Hopefully we can catch up to the McLaren and to the Ferrari’s and fight for P2. This is what it is this year. And what it was last year. We had a P2 last year,” summed up Wolff, who was then asked if the realistic target has been re-jigged to second this year and if they are looking at a 2026 comeback.
As much as Wolff wants to fight in 2024 and 2025 even, the Austrian is aware of the difficulties that it poses for any F1 team to fight back during a dominant regulation period. He also noted about taking the fight to Ferrari and McLaren in the upcoming races, having had a slower than expected start to the 2024 season.
“We’re in a bit of a… If your expectation is eventually to race for wins and championships, then you can say we’re in a bit of a no man’s land,” explained Wolff. “Because Max and Red Bull are far ahead And then we’re in this bunch, but it’s not satisfying for neither team that is fighting for P2 and P3 or P4. Especially some of the smaller teams.
“I’ve always said it. If I was to look from a pure sporting point of view. Pure sporting point of view is P1 what matters and not P2 and P3 and P4. But this is a reality that we’re facing at the moment. And we’re trying to do the best out of this new reality. And that is to beat our direct competitors. Whilst acknowledging that somebody is just doing a better job.
“And setting a benchmark that we eventually need to set ourselves again. Whether we’re able to, with our ambition to win races this year. And I wouldn’t want to let that ambition go. Certainly not next year. But 2026 is a big reset. Which certainly provides the most realistic opportunity for any other team to beat Red Bull.
“But there is one and three quarters seasons before that. And I don’t want to go through much more suffering. In the next 18 months. I would just hope for highlights and a trajectory that’s going upwards. I think you can only look back and say. How did last season run? And you can see the fluctuations in performance.
“Ferrari was not very good. And then eventually turned it around. And it was the second fourth in the later stage of the championship. And the same with McLaren. It was even a bigger swing. They were not getting themselves out of Q1. And at the end were regular podium contenders.
“So I think these swings will still happen. And at the moment we are not able to fight them. But we will. That’s certainly a realistic target. Much more realistic than Max,” summed up Wolff, who still has praise for Red Bull and Verstappen to do the kind of job they are doing. He doesn’t see it as a turn-off for fans as he feels there is excitement still.
“I think I wouldn’t say it like this because the guys who are ahead are the deserving winner,” said Wolff. “And I believe that we’ve seen the Ferrari’s more closer to him. In some of the previous races. And I think we can be closer to the Ferrari’s than we have shown in Japan. So it is still exciting. I don’t know how the race was for you guys to watch.
“I’m just looking at our cars in split time. So I never have a correct picture of what’s actually happening out there. But I believe it’s pretty close between P3 or P2 at times. And P8. In that respect there will be some action. We just have to push ourselves to provide a better show. And eventually challenge them,” summed up Wolff.
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