“The Only One”: Toto Wolff Admits Max Verstappen’s Supreme Quality That Is Keeping Him Above Lewis Hamilton and Co.

Max Verstappen has been having the time of his life as he has dominated the entire grid for the past two years, especially in 2023. Now, as per a recent report by GPBlog, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has identified the one quality that no one else other than Verstappen has that helps the Dutchman to be the absolute best.

Following the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Toto Wolff explained that the major difference between drivers comes down to their understanding of the grip levels of their tires. He then complimented Verstappen and said, “I think the only one this year who has understood how to drive these tires is Max.” 

: Toto Wolff acknowledges differences in performance among teammates, citing examples like Sainz and Leclerc, Russell and Hamilton, and Perez and Verstappen. He gives a significant compliment to Max Verstappen, stating that Verstappen is the only one in the 2023 season who… pic.twitter.com/eZ24SN6mgw

— F1 Naija (@f1_naija) December 2, 2023

This was quite evident by the fact that Verstappen rarely had any issues regarding pit stop strategies throughout the season. He rarely had to pit early due to excess degradation which put his race in jeopardy. Instead, Verstappen often read and optimized his driving according to the conditions to make his strategies work.

This definitely helped Verstappen who was already in the fastest car on the grid. However, it was very clear that the Dutchman was extremely good at what he did given that Perez also had equal machinery under him but failed to come anywhere close to the 26-year-old.

Another example of how comfortable Verstappen was with his tires was when he delayed his pitstop to make sure that he led more than 1,000 laps in 2023. Even though the Red Bull star extended his stint by quite a bit, he barely lost any time.

Ferrari and Mercedes have had their share of issues

At the opposite end of the spectrum to Red Bull have been Ferrari and Mercedes. The Maranello outfit have suffered with tire wear and degradations massively. This restricted the team from capitalizing on any kind of momentum that they were able to gather over the course of the season.

Problems with tire wear and strategy also meant that Ferrari finally lost out to Mercedes in the battle to P2 in the standings by a meager three points. And while Mercedes did manage to claim P2, Lewis Hamilton made it extremely clear that he is absolutely satisfied to be able to get rid of the W14.

Lewis Hamilton knowing he doesn’t have to drive the W14 again pic.twitter.com/VBI0I2Oa5K

— WTF1 (@wtf1official) November 26, 2023

Hamilton had claimed at the season finale that the car was extremely difficult to handle, especially in the high-speed corners where it behaved in an extremely unpredictable manner. Hence, he is looking forward to starting afresh in 2024 with the new challenger, which is expected to be much more competitive.