Recently, several comments have emerged regarding the differences between the Red Bull drivers’ cars and Toto Wolff was no exception. Speaking in a media session after qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix when Verstappen outpaced Perez by 1.3s, the Austrian commented:
“Odd, bizarre – Checo is not an idiot. We have seen it all these years, Checo is a Grand Prix winner, a multiple Grand Prix winner and he was at Racing Point. I cannot comprehend… we have seen Max destroy every single teammate that was with him, whether it is the ability to create a car around himself that is just very tricky to control but fast if you can… that makes those gaps. “But 1.3 seconds? I haven’t heard any explanations, but odd.”
Sergio Perez was asked about it during today’s press conference ahead of the Italian Grand Prix. The Mexican driver responded in a more neutral and conservative way: “I think it’s hard to say, we’d have to look at it race by race. At the end of the day, sometimes the gap is bigger. For example, how it was in Zandvoort, it was mainly getting the conditions right and exploring everything out of the car – and the differences if you don’t get the conditions right, you will see a big delta, so it’s how it works sometimes. We’ve seen with other drivers those sorts of gaps.”
However, the Jalisco native added that what really matters is what you see after Abu Dhabi and accepted that this season had been a “difficult” period: “It’s a long season in F1 and it doesn’t really matter in my opinion where we are now, it only matters where we are able to finish and then we can summarise our season in Abu Dhabi.”
Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
For his part, the driver representing the Netherlands in the biggest motorsport category on the planet, Verstappen described Wolff’s statements as “bull***” and denied that the RB19 was designed especially for him:
“Bull*** comments!” was Verstappen’s blunt response during his media session. “It’s not like that.
“I just drive the car the fastest way possible. I’m not there to tell the guys to give me more because that’s how I like it.
“I just say ‘Design me the fastest car and I’ll drive around that’ because every single year, every car drives a little bit differently.
“People ask ‘What is your driving style?’ My driving style is not something particular. I adapt to what I need for the car to go quick. For me, what is very important is that you are able to adapt your driving style to what the car needs.”
