Toto Wolff has Max Verstappen suspicion after watching F1 star at Japanese GP

07 April 2024 , 11:29

1393     0

Max Verstappen won the Japanese Grand Prix to extend his championship lead (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Toto Wolff thinks Max Verstappen has already got the 2024 Formula 1 title wrapped up.

That's despite just four races of the 24 scheduled for this year having been run. Verstappen won the latest, Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix, with ease, leading from start to finish and barely breaking a sweat as he did so.

It means he has won three of those four races - and would probably have taken victory in the fourth had he not suffered a brake fire while leading the Melbourne race two weeks ago. Such imperious form has made the Dutchman the heavy favourite, if he wasn't already, to secure a fourth-straight F1 title.

Mercedes boss Wolff cannot foresee any circumstances in which the Red Bull racer doesn't achieve that milestone this year. "No-one is going to catch Max this year," the Austrian declared.

"His driving and the car are just spectacular. You can see the way he manages the tyres and basically this season now is best of the rest. If I was to look from a pure sporting point of view it is P1 what matters, not P2, P3 or P4 but this is the reality that we are facing at the moment.

Inside the driver call which upset Red Bull and changed the course of F1 history

"We're trying to do the best out of this new reality and that is to beat our competitors whilst acknowledging that somebody is just doing a better job and setting the benchmark that we eventually need to set ourselves again."

While Red Bull secured a third one-two finish of the season, Mercedes again had a tough time of it on track. George Russell escaped a penalty to finish seventh while Lewis Hamilton was further back, wallowing in ninth.

They are fourth in the championship as a result, already more than 100 points adrift of Red Bull and only one ahead of Aston Martin. But despite the chasm between them, Red Bull chief Christian Horner brushed aside Wolff's suggestion that there is no title to fight for again this year.

Horner said: "It's very early to write off the year - there are still 20 races to go. I've learned not to listen too much to what Toto says over the years.

"It was great to bounce back after the DNF in Australia, after such a great start to the season, it was important to bounce back quickly. I think that we've done that emphatically here at Suzuka this weekend. It's a great performance."

Daniel Moxon