Mercedes chief Toto Wolff conceded Max Verstappen was the only driver who maximised his car’s potential this year.
The Dutchman ended the season with a frighteningly dominant record. He won 19 of the 22 races and finished lower than second just once, on a rare off-weekend for Red Bull at the Singapore Grand Prix, when he still scored points in fifth.
Sergio Perez, a teammate, was much below him and finished the season with less than half as many points. Mercedes and Ferrari, for example, lacked the vehicles to match Verstappen’s, and their drivers’ performances fluctuated.
Wolff observed fluctuations in the abilities of both his drivers. George Russell never found the consistency that marked his debut season as a Mercedes driver, while Lewis Hamilton scored heavily in the first half of the season but had a terrible finish.
The Austrian concedes that Verstappen was the only one to reach peak form. He remarked, “It’s hard to understand that good drivers in different teams have these oscillations of performance.” You’ve witnessed it happen with George and Lewis, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, and with [Carlos] Sainz and [Charles] Leclerc [here in Abu Dhabi].
“And Perez and Verstappen are the obvious ones. Perez does not trail Max by a single second. What then is that? It has been observed swinging both ways. I believe that at its core, everything revolves around the tyre grip. You can extract performance from the car if you can get it into a sweet spot and establish a stable platform early in the weekend.
“I believe that there simply isn’t a performance if you’re not. It’s like you’re literally falling off the cliff. I therefore cannot explain that. Max is the only person I believe has learned how to drive these tires this year.”
Frederic Vasseur, his Ferrari counterpart, concurred with that evaluation. Throughout the season, the Frenchman witnessed his drivers switch positions multiple times in the championship. However, Sainz’s miserable finish allowed Leclerc to pass him and finish six points ahead of the Spaniard.
Vasseur stated, “I believe it’s true that Charles was flying in the last six or seven events and the Carlos was very, very strong after the summer break.” However, all things considered, I believe the team’s evaluation that we conducted was accurate.
With the exception of Max, every team on the grid experienced ups and downs throughout the season. It’s extremely tight, so occasionally you can go from P2-P3 to P10 and then it’s almost a disaster for a tenth [of a second] or a tenth and a half because you like the track or the car’s setup that day.”
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