Max Verstappen issues Toto Wolff accusation as Red Bull ace replies to bold comments | F1 | Sport
Max Verstappen has accused Toto Wolff and Mercedes of deploying ‘diversion tactics’ after the Silver Arrows’ team principal labelled Red Bull as the team to beat after the first day of the pre-season test in Bahrain.
While Red Bull’s second day of testing was hampered by a technical issue that affected Isack Hadjar’s running, Verstappen laid down the fastest time of the day on Wednesday, backing up the positive feeling in Milton Keynes after a strong debut for the RB22 in Montmelo.
Wednesday’s running was enough for Wolff to label Red Bull as “the benchmark” for the rest of the grid. “They are able to deploy far more energy on the straights than everybody else,” he said. “You are speaking a second, over consecutive laps. On a single lap, we have seen it before, but now we have seen it on 10 consecutive laps with the same kind of straight-line deployment.”
These comments were put to four-time world champion Verstappen, but the Dutchman wasn’t getting carried away with Wolff’s congratulatory words. “I mean, let’s look back at the last 10 years of winter testing, I don’t think you can say who is the world champion on day one,” he declared.
“Especially with a new ruleset like this. For me personally, it’s more like diversion tactics. But that’s okay. I mean, I focus on what we’re doing here with the team. Because honestly, for us, there’s still so much to learn. This new ruleset is so complex that we just want to do our laps and just go from there, to be honest.”
That isn’t to say that Verstappen isn’t content with the first steps for Red Bull’s new car and power unit, though. “I think the start that we have had is just very nice,” he continued. “And everyone is very happy with that. Like the lap count that we did yesterday, for example. That’s just great.
“That’s exactly what we want to do. But it’s not a given. At the same time, we have worked, of course, for many years now to try and be here and be ready. But if it’s going to be enough to win, I don’t know. You don’t have a clue at the moment if that’s the case.
“And also, what you see here now in testing, you won’t see in Melbourne. For many cars, many engines as well. And it’s normal, of course, that other people are hiding and trying to probably make us look really good.
“At the same time, we don’t care. We just focus on ourselves. We just try to do the best we can. But yeah, I’m happy, of course, with how everything started. But there’s still such a massive room for improvement at the same time as well. Because of how complicated everything is.”
