F1: Verstappen makes rest of field looks like F2

Christian Horner has responded to Toto Wolff’s “F2 cars chasing an F1 car” quip: That is just the way the team is working

“I think, at the moment, that is just the way that the team is working, it’s all about the details.”

“I think we’re leaving no stone unturned at the moment. The strategy was strong, the pitstop today was 1.9 seconds that the guys put in for Checo [Perez], and very quick stops again for Max.

“You’re seeing a whole team just operating at such a high level.”

“There’s no silver bullet in Formula 1 and I think it’s always a combination of factors that have to come together to achieve these kind of results.”

Christian Horner Team Principal at Oracle Red Bull Racing during the Hungarian GP, Budapest 20-23 July 2023 at the Hungaroring, Formula 1 World championship 2023. We wish he would have said to Toto, “You’ve got a problem, change your sorry ass car.”

July 23, 2023

In a post-race interview on Sky Sports, Mercedes’ Toto Wolff said that Hungarian GP winner Max Verstappen is so fast he makes the rest of the F1 grid look like “a field of Formula 2 cars”.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Verstappen scored his seventh GP win in a row in Budapest, having smoked polesitter Lewis Hamilton into Turn 1 before pulling away to a dominating victory, his 9th of the season.

He was so far ahead at the finish (34 seconds) the 2nd place car of Lando Norris was nearly a half lap behind.

Wolff told Sky Sports: “It is a meritocracy. We are going to fight back and win races and championships, but today you’ve seen the pace that Max had, and you saw it already on the long runs on Friday [practice].

Toto Wolff Executive director of the Mercedes AMG F1 Team during the Hungarian GP, Budapest 20-23 July 2023 at the Hungaroring, Formula 1 World championship 2023.

“That is where they are. It is like a field of Formula 2 cars against a Formula 1 [car]. They’ve done the best job. Within the regulations, they’ve done the best job.”

With Chief Design Engineer Aldo Costa now gone from Mercedes, it’s likely they will never have dominating cars again like they did when Hamilton won so many races, poles and titles driving Costa’s cars.

Asked where the qualifying pace had gone, Wolff said Hamilton’s Saturday performance was a major factor, but that Mercedes was second only to Red Bull in the race although it had failed to “monetize” that speed.

The Austrian said: “I think clearly yesterday was a mega Lewis lap. We screwed it up with George in qualifying.

“I think we had the second-quickest car today, if you look at the lap time profile and also where George came from. But we just didn’t monetize on it.

“But having said that, you see where Verstappen is doing his laps and that needs to be the target and that is far off at the moment.”

Verstappen was visibly upset that he lost pole to Hamilton on Saturday by just 0.003s. He went storming out of the post-qualifying media bullpen so dominated by pro-British driver journalists.

He was on a mission to right that wrong on Sunday, and right it he did, dealing a crushing blow to the entire field at the Hungaroring.

At age 25, Hamilton (now 38) had won 14 F1 races.

Verstappen has won 44 at the same age, 3 times as many, and he isn’t 26 years old yet, so that number is likely to go higher.

Now mature and more confident, we are witnessing perhaps the greatest driver of all time work his magic.