Mercedes boss Toto Wolff feels the championship battle this year between Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton pales in comparison to the challenge of 2016.
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton are tied in the points going into the season finale in Abu Dhabi this week. While the entire championship rests on this race, the pressure of this finale is nothing compared to the 2016 finale between Mercedes teammates Hamilton and Nico Rosberg according to Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff.
Even though Hamilton won the dramatic race in Abu Dhabi in 2016, Nico Rosberg who finished in second was crowned champion as he lead the championship by five points.
The battle for the championship between the teammates went on every year the two were together but 2016 was the boiling point for what was once a great friendship going back to even before their days in F1.
Toto Wolff was the Team Principal even then and had to bear the pressure of his two driver’s almost at each other’s throats.
“I would say that the intensity of the situation was maybe more in 2016 because if you have a rivalry and a fight within the team, trying to manage the two sides of the garage and obviously not being one-sided but keeping everything transparent was very, very difficult,” said Wolff ahead of this week’s final race.
“Also, for me, I was still very much in my junior year, so I don’t want to go back to the difficulties of that relationship or that situation there.”
“There are many things I would do differently today, and this one is just a fierce fight between teams and drivers that have done a really great job.”
Also read: Nico Rosberg predicts this F1 driver will be world champion
The pressure’s on for Red Bull
This is the first real chance at a championship that Red Bull has had ever since Sebastian Vettel’s last championship in 2013. Christian Horner was also the Team Principal for Red Bull’s glory years and is well aware of the scale of the opportunity in front of them.
“Lewis is a seven-time world champion, he’s the most successful driver of all time, he has a standing obviously within the sport and what he says carries a lot of weight,” said the Team Principal in Abu Dhabi.
“I think he has used every tool available to him to put Max under pressure this year. He’s a competitive animal, you don’t become a seven-time world champion by not being a competitor like he is.”
Max Verstappen: “As a driver, you don’t think about these things. You go to a weekend where you just want to do the best you can, as a team, and of course you try to win the race. I know what’s in the sporting code. No one needs to be reminded of that.” #F1 pic.twitter.com/6K3qtge4LU
— PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) December 11, 2021
“Yes, I believe—and backed up by the Mercedes media machine—a huge amount of pressure has been placed on Max. What you’ve got to remember with Max is he’s just a young lad,” continued the British team boss.
“He’s a 24-year-old that drives with bravery, with passion, with skill, with determination, and he’s just a guy living his dream, doing his job. And he’s up against not only Lewis but a huge machine in Mercedes-Benz.”
