Wolff: Verstappen domination ‘like a field of F2 cars against an F1 car…’

Verstappen enjoyed his most dominant performance of F1 2023 at the Hungaroring, winning by over 30 seconds.

The Dutchman didn’t look back when he claimed the lead on Lap 1 at the Hungarian Grand Prix, overtaking Lewis Hamilton.

Verstappen’s latest win means Red Bull have now broken the record for 12 consecutive victories, while the team is still unbeaten this year.

Assessing Verstappen’s dominant run, Wolff said: “That is what it is. It’s a meritocracy. We’re going to fight back - win races and championships. We’ve seen the pace Max had and we saw it on the long runs on Friday. 

“That’s where they are. It’s like a field of Formula 2 cars against a Formula 1 [car]. They’ve done the best job. As long as you’re within the regulations you’ve done the best job.”

Despite finishing behind Lando Norris on race day, Wolff felt that Mercedes had the second-quickest car, not McLaren.

“I think we had the second quickest car today. If you look at the lap time profile, also where George came from, but we just didn’t monetise on it.

“But having said that, you see where Verstappen is doing his laps, tranquil, and that needs to be the target – and that’s far off at the moment.

“The start certainly played a role, but that can happen. It was maybe also we brought the tyres in very carefully, maybe too careful, and you can see the lap time difference towards the end,

“I think we reeled in maybe 15 seconds – something around that. We were missing at the end 1.9s to Perez and just four seconds to Lando, or less, and I think we had that.”