Horner contradicts Wolff on Verstappen: 'Don't listen to Toto too much'

As far as Toto Wolff is concerned, this year's Formula 1 world championship is already pretty much decided. Nobody can overtake Max Verstappen anymore, the Mercedes team boss claimed. Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner, however, is less adamant about this, pointing out that there are still many races to go.

Wolff suggested that the battle this year will mainly focus on second place, for which his own team hopes to battle Ferrari and McLaren. The Mercedes boss stressed that Verstappen combined with his RB20 is "simply spectacular".

Horner wholeheartedly agrees with the latter, although the 50-year-old Briton thinks it is too early to write off the competition's World Championship chances. "It's very early to write off your year, but, um, there's still 20 races to go, but, I've learned not to listen too much to what Toto has said over the years."

The Red Bull team principal stresses that Verstappen is in absolute top form and that this plays into the ease with which the Dutchman strings together victories: "I think he's in great shape, you know, he's changed trainer over the winter, he's fit, he's lean. And the car's in a great window, and you can hear the capacity, the spare capacity he has in the car. He's wanting to know about, not just who's behind him, but who's behind that as well, and what times are they doing, and, you know, the capacity he has is very impressive, The form that he had last year, he's just carried through."

Moreover, according to Horner, Verstappen has become even better at managing his tyres. "He's become very astute at managing the tyre, and the way that he, he managed to extend the tyre life is very impressive. We saw that in the first stint, the second stint. He did a very good job as well. He's got a very wise head on still pretty young shoulders," the team boss said.