Max Verstappen back on form: Is Mercedes team principal Wolff worried?

The drivers’ World Championship title race has already been decided this year, with Kimi Antonelli crowned the youngest world champion in Formula 1 history. The Mercedes star and his team-mate George Russell are also set to secure the Constructors’ Championship title for the team based in Brackley and Brixworth. This is because the German carmaker’s works team, with the star emblem, needs to score just three more points than Ferrari to extend its points lead over its closest rivals to a point where it can no longer be overtaken.

However, Mercedes’ performance advantage has shrunk over the course of the season. In the last eleven race weekends, Red Bull Racing star Max Verstappen has in fact scored ten points more than the new champion from Italy. Is this a cause for concern for team principal Toto Wolff?

Speaking in an interview with colleagues from ‘Sky Sports F1’ about the performance of rivals Red Bull Racing, the Austrian said: “They’ve done a very good job and the car and the engine are now simply working well together, and then of course there’s Max.”

“At the same time, it’s fair to say that our upgrade didn’t deliver the performance boost we’d expected. We thought we’d gain a few tenths with it, but that wasn’t the case, for whatever reason. We’re working very hard to find out why that was. That’s why they were able to close the gap,” Wolff analysed, adding: “That’s good news for next year, as we’re in for a tough battle. Of course, I’d have preferred it if we’d been able to pull away, but that’s not going to happen. It’s certainly going to be a very close fight.”

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