F1, Mercedes: Toto Wolff raises white flag

Toto Wolff bitter after yet another show of strength by Max Verstappen

Lewis Hamilton’s pole position in Hungary turned out, in hindsight, to be a flash in the pan: the GP run on Sunday at the Hungaroring once again rewarded Max Verstappen and Red Bull, now well on their way to the 2023 drivers’ and constructors’ world titles. A situation that led Toto Wolff to raise the white flag for good, at least according to his words released to ‘Sky Sports Uk’.

“Fighting with Red Bull is impossible,” the Austrian executive said, “On the grid the other cars look like Formula 2s when compared to them. There is nothing more to say, they have done the best possible job and are reaping the results.”

Wolff then said he was disappointed with the result of the Hungarian GP: “In theory we had the second fastest car on the grid, but we didn’t take advantage of it and that is disappointing. We have to figure out how we can do better and make the most of our strengths.”

Mercedes is currently in second place in the constructors’ championship, with 223 points; Red Bull, which leads the standings, has more than twice as many, 452. The best race result was second place in the Australian and Spanish Grand Prix, both achieved by Lewis Hamilton: the seven-time world champion also brought the Brackley-based stable back to pole position for the first time, a result last achieved by Hamilton’s teammate George Russell, also in Hungary in 2022.