Clearly, Mercedes Boss Toto Wolff wants his Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton, and George Russell, to beat Max Verstappen. The whole season, Verstappen has lost only twice, and both times to his teammate, Sergio Perez. After winning twice, Checo gradually faded away. Moreover, the Dutchman has won eight races in a row in the current season. On the other hand, this year, Mercedes is trying all they can to understand what they need to build a championship-winning car next year.
The German team wants to start winning from the first race of the 2024 season. But until then, there is no denying the greatness of Max Verstappen. He can be selfish or perhaps even ruthless. But he is proving that he is an all-time great in every race with the skills he possesses. Moreover, there have been complaints about Max being too cheeky on the radio with his team. However, Mercedes’ boss came in his support.
Toto Wolff Says Max Has All The Right To Be Cheeky On The Radio
Recently, Toto Wolff told media, including RacingNews365 and PlanetF1, that Max Verstappen has all the reason to be cheeky after listening to his radio discussions. Moreover, Toto Wolff mentioned that the Dutchman is driving everybody else in the circle with his merit. But still, those radio discussions were a bit irksome for the Mercedes boss. Adding to that, Toto Wolff noted that those conversations of the Red Bull team on the radio are annoying. But other teams have no choice other than to listen to it. Wolff added that it is just annoying.
The Dutchman’s career win tally moves on to 45 victories right before the summer break. That’s what Verstappen desperately wanted. He did not want to stick with 44 victories for too long as Lewis Hamilton has such a close connection with that number. That’s exactly what happened in the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend. Red Bull remains unbeaten so far in 2023. Mercedes and Hamilton are still looking for their first win. However, Toto Wolff earlier hinted that they were shifting focus to the next year’s car. At this point, they don’t have much else to do.
What Happened Between Max Verstappen And His Race Engineer On Final Race Day In Spa?
Previously, Max Verstappen and his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase had arguments over the radio in Hungary as well. But this time in Belgium, they had another snippy radio exchange. Max Verstappen kept complaining about the tire degradation. In reply, Gianpiero Lambiase mentioned that the first set of tires went through reasonable degradation. Moreover, the engineer added that Max should stop complaining and use his head a little bit more. The response clearly did not sit not well with the racer.
Verstappen replied, “Okay then, I’m gonna push on and come for another pit stop. Let’s have some pit stop training, shall we?” Immediately enough, Lambiase was ready to mention, “No. Not this time.” Later in the post-race conference, Max Verstappen cleared any doubts regarding those radio conversations, saying, “We are only 50-50 serious when we have such discussions.” Moreover, Verstappen came to win the race from the sixth position. But he joked that he likes to make his team nervous when he says he wants to come for a pit stop.
