Wolff on 'bizarre' gap Verstappen and Perez: "I cannot comprehend it"

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff calls the gap between polesitter Max Verstappen and his teammate Sergio Perez 'bizarre.' He stresses that Perez is by no means a pancake and that he finds it hard to understand how the gap can be so big, although Wolff too has seen that Verstappen has made mincemeat of all his teammates so far.

When asked during a press briefing with GPblog and others what he thinks of the 1.3-second gap between Verstappen and Perez, Wolff replied: "Odd. Bizarre. Checo is not an idiot. We have seen it over the years. Checo is a Grand Prix winner and multiple Grand Prix winner and he was at Racing Point. I cannot comprehend it. "

At the same time, the Mercedes boss sees that Verstappen can have a devastating effect on his teammates. "We have seen that Max has destroyed every single teammate that he had. Whether it's his ability to create a car around himself that is just very tricky to control, but fast if you can," the Austrian continued.

"[Maybe] that makes those gaps, creates those gaps. I haven't heard any obvious explanations but, yeah, odd," said Wolff, who sees his drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton starting from fourth and 13th respectively at Zandvoort on Sunday.