Toto Wolff says Mercedes is where the second Red Bull is in the standings, as he feels there is a step from them but the top guy has made one too.
The F1 2023 has been evident enough that Max Verstappen is in a league of his own leaving behind his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez as well. This has led many to put themselves in that bracket along with their immediate rivals.
For Mercedes, it is Ferrari, Aston Martin and McLaren whom they are fighting to retain second. Wolff thinks they are in that league along with Perez with only Verstappen being out of reach. “You just need to take Max out of the equation,” he said.
“The second Red Bull is where we are. It would have been a fantastic season and close racing but you know, the stopwatch never lies. There is just one guy and one car that are above everything else and we’ve just got to catch up. There is no choice.”
He also believes that there is definitely a step that they have made since 2022 especially looking at the Belgian GP weekend where last year was disaster for them with the bouncing issues, but this year they made good strides to be near the podium.
“I think when you compare to the rest of the world, we have… Spa was an awful race and before that last stop, Perez, Leclerc and us were within six seconds, eight seconds, and that is a major step for us because Spa was like I said before, was a disaster in 2022,” said Wolff. “So we feel we’ve made that step but then you have that top guy who made another step in advance. Fact, we’ve just got to turn around the fact.”
Here’s Lewis Hamilton on updates
Here’s George Russell on set-up issues
Here’s Toto Wolff on bouncing
Here’s news on Frederik Vesti getting FP1 chance
