Toto Wolff drew a striking comparison, likening Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s dominance to a formidable field of f2 cars pitted against a single F1 car.
Verstappen’s prowess reached new heights at the Hungaroring as he delivered a resounding display of dominance, securing victory by an astounding margin of over 30 seconds.
From the very first lap of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the Dutchman seized the lead with unwavering determination, leaving no room for Lewis Hamilton to challenge his position.
Delving into Verstappen’s remarkable display of dominance, Wolff expressed: “That is what it is. It’s a meritocracy. We’re going to fight back – win races and championships. We’ve seen the pace Max had and we saw it on the long runs on Friday.
“That’s where they are. It’s like a field of Formula 2 cars against a Formula 1 [car]. They’ve done the best job. As long as you’re within the regulations you’ve done the best job.”
Although McLaren’s Lando Norris claimed victory on race day, Wolff remained convinced that Mercedes possessed the second-fastest car, not McLaren.
“I think we had the second quickest car today. If you look at the lap time profile, also where George came from, but we just didn’t monetise on it.
“But having said that, you see where Verstappen is doing his laps, tranquil, and that needs to be the target – and that’s far off at the moment.
“The start certainly played a role, but that can happen. It was maybe also we brought the tyres in very carefully, maybe too careful, and you can see the lap time difference towards the end,
“I think we reeled in maybe 15 seconds – something around that. We were missing at the end 1.9s to Perez and just four seconds to Lando, or less, and I think we had that.”
