Wolff already proclaims world champion: 'Nobody catches up to Max anymore'

Toto Wolff thinks Max Verstappen can already be declared this year's champion. He says this after the race in Japan. He also thinks Mercedes should challenge themselves and sets a clear goal for this season.

Whether Toto Wolff thinks Max Verstappen is a deserving winner? The Austrian does not waste any time on that: "I think I wouldn't say it like this because the one the guys who are ahead is the deserving winner."

He therefore thinks that nobody is going to overtake Verstappen this year: "No one is going to catch Max this year. He's driving and the car is just spectacular. You can see where he manages the tyres. And basically this season now is best of the rest. That's the fight that's on. Hopefully we can catch up to the McLaren and to the Ferraris and fight for P2. This is, this is what it is this year and what it is what it was last year. We had a P2 last year."

Mercedes need to push

Wolff, who has not seen his Mercedes emerge victorious since the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix, thinks his team need to start challenging themselves: "I don't know what the race was for you guys to watch. I'm just looking at our cars in split time, so I never have a correct picture of what's actually happening out there. But I believe it's pretty close between P3 and P2 times and P8, and with that respect, there will be some action and we just got to push ourselves to provide a better show and eventually challenge them."