Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff painted a bleak but realistic picture of the Formula 1 season after the Japanese Grand Prix.
"His driving and the car are just spectacular. You can see it by the way he manages the tyres. This season is best of the rest. That is the fight that is on."
Verstappen went into this season on the back of the most dominant year in F1 history. It simply doesn't happen in F1 that one team and driver have such an advantage one year and don't retain at least some form of edge into the following one as well. So predictions of a close season were thin on the ground over the winter.
"I know there will be tracks coming up that might not be so favourable for us. When we do get to tracks where we know that we can be quick, we have to really take advantage of it and score the maximum amount of points as a team, and that's what we'll continue to try and do. "But of course, on a street circuit, it's not only low speed, it's drivability, it's kerb riding, riding over the bumps. So general ride of a car. So these things are still a little bit unknown at the moment of how well we have improved on that."Behind Red Bull, a pattern is emerging, and one that has rendered all of the races this year, frankly, a bit dull.
Ferrari had the second fastest car by the end of 2023 as well - although they certainly did not start last year in that position - but in terms of overall competitiveness they have taken a step closer to Red Bull this season. "I think they are definitely going to have an advantage in the first third of the season until we bring one or two upgrades that makes us fight them more consistently.
"Overall, if you compare with Red Bull on the last four races of last year to this year, to the first four events this season, we have made a decent step forward. Seventh and ninth in qualifying - with Hamilton ahead - became seventh and ninth in the race - with Russell ahead. "The downforce is there but we are not able to extract the lap time that we should and the simulations show us. I see you looking at us, like, 'What the hell?' Imagine what we think."Do Mercedes have a better car than Aston Martin? The average qualifying lap times say no - the Aston is 0.036secs quicker over four races so far.
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