A war of words between the two team bosses of Mercedes and Red Bull came to a head in Canada. Wolff reported by Speedweek.com condemning the young Dutch driver as “behaving like a youngster” with a degree of immaturity outside the car.
“He’s a teenager. In the car he is extremely good, but if you talk to him, then he is a boy.”
Very quickly Toto qualified his comment saying “Verstappen made some mistakes in Monaco, three times he crashed into the barriers. Compare Max with the maturity of Lance [Stroll] and it’s very surprising, as he’s is only 17 years old.”
Stroll currently races with F3 team Prema Powerteam who has strong ties with Mercedes. It’s worth noting too that Toto Wolff tried unsuccessfully to secure Max Verstappen during the period when Red Bull upgraded him to the top flight of F1.
After the race in Canada however, Horner jumped in with a rebuttal after Verstappen’s impressive race to 4th having held off a rampant Nico Rosberg for 10 laps.
“He showed a great mental strength! It was a pretty mature performance for someone who has been accused by Mr Wolff of not being mature. For me he [Max] was very mature, as he kept some very experienced drivers behind him, ”
Verstappen was awarded the offical ‘driver of the day’ post race.
Regardless of what Toto thinks, Red Bull will tolerate Max’s moments of petulance as they see him as the star of the future. Lance Stroll may come to F1 and be a top driver, but he would need to be flawless to ever wish to compete with Max. What Max has as a driver is similar to Senna and Hamilton- a natural ability to manipulate a car in the most difficult circumstances. His drive at Canada GP against Rosberg was one of maturity and coolness under pressure. It may be a cliche, but it holds him in good stead for all comers. Of course Max lacks technical knowledge, but this will come with time. Natural raw talent behind the wheel is something that cannot be taught.
Toto wants some of the millions of Lance father ( billionaire) to put in the Williams team. That’s why he had the kind words for Lance. Have you noticed that Mercedes doesn’t Tweet anything anymore about Max since he left Toro Rosso.
Now they know they can’t get him at Mercedes.
Toto says max is mature in the car. Youngsters out of it.
Horner defends max by saying he is mature in the car…
Am I the only one who sees what’s wrong?
No, it was obvious when I read the quote elsewhere – although I didn’t know wolff’s Monaco quote.
Monaco still hurts and will only go away after a good result in Baku. That is close or in front of Ricciardo in both Qualy and the race.
So Wolff knows where to hit…
Who cares how he is outside the car? If you want a philosophical discussion, pick someone who has skipped a few classes and went to university at the age of 15. Funny how people expect everything to be special about someone who has a special ability…
The skill of a racer is not just his time inside a car. There is the process of developing the car and also all of the small things involved around feedback of the setup and pr work. A F1 racer is the whole package. Not just a stellar racer always.
He’s only just 18 years old, of course he has some growing up to do.
True. But hey, who cares how he is outside the car? What he eats, how mature he is, if fancies Tolstoj or Spiderman? Horner probably suspected a reference to his driving in Monaco and responded accordingly
Max did well to keep Nico behind him for as long as he did in Sunday.
However, the excitement over that skill & maturity Max showed has to be tempered by acknowledging Nico’s inability to pass anyone without a significant performance advantage to rely on.
I doubt Nico can even pass wind at the moment without leaving a massive skid mark or hot mess.
Well Nico passed Ricciardo like he wasn’t even there…
Hmmm… 2 minutes of research on the interwebz tells me Nico was on tyres that were 13 laps younger than Dan’s and that the pass was made when Nico’s tyres were shiny new and just up to temperature.
I’d humbly suggest that … ummm… well… Nico relied on a significant performance advantage to make the pass on Dan??
Hey! Wait a minute! I just said that! #facepalmorwhatever
Clues are free – go get yourself some 😉
When Rosberg did his moves on Max, Max was driving with 17 rounds old Ultra Softs. You forget to mention this in your commend. No problem, I just help you remind it.
When Nico closed the gap to Max his tyres were 12 laps old and he’d worked those tyres pretty hard to close that gap in the first place. Nico’s performance advantage over Max was nowhere near as large as it was over Dan – which was my original point 🙂
Keep telling yourself that Max is the shizz and Dan should just get out of the way though – it’s a nice story, bro’.
I’m feeling a touch of the Eternal Septembers here.
Barkeep! Another round of Jägerbombs, if you would be so kind…
Dan and Max are a great pairing RB should just let them race and who is in front should get the first pit stop. And no whining from both of them like “let me get past i am faster”
Bruznic, You’re right. The maturities are a bit mixed up in the media.
In my opinion, the difference between Max and Lance is talent vs someone with an upbringing from wealth. As an entrepeneur (which lances father is) you need to be spotless and need to sell your product. In Max’s case, upbringing by his parents, being succesfull racers and managers/mechanics themselves, combined with the talent Max has, the market comes to them. From what I can tell Lance is quite good and how he talks outside the track is surprising, but those things can be learned with proper mediatraining. I think Toto fell for the “fake it till you’ll make it” routine.
It might be even so that uncomplicated driving, not thinking too much, being 18, helps in keeping extreme focus
Luckily Ham is showing more signs of matutity.
Not showing up at testdays, ramming other cars at 3 am in the morning, filming himself while riding a motorbike, hanging out with Justin Bieber…
YES, we need that certain level of immaturity in a good driver!
Exactly what I was thinking.
Besides, I don’t think Lance Stroll is very mature in the car yet. Last year he caused many crashes in F3 which resulted in a ban and exclusion from results.
Hmmm, let us stand back for awhile. Max, congratulations you made the right choice. Michael had an excellent World Championship run whilst at Benetton (Red Bull) before starting that glorious run at Scuderia Ferrari. Actually his worst time was at Mercedes. I held Toto for a clever man but unless he offers Stroll a factory contract, he’s lost my respect.
Stewart became Jaguar became Red Bull.
Toleman became Benetton became Renault became Lotus became Renault.
Tyrell became BAR became Honda became Brawn became Mercedes.
Such an immature guy and still he is able to get into so many heads, fiend or foe.
That is precise the point: it is not a contest who is most mature, that would actually be quite boring to watch;)
I didn’t read Toto’s comments but if he didn’t state what Max did wrong and what he should be doing better, than criticizing Max for immaturity is just a cheap ad hominem attack.
Max fits the RedBull brand very well, striking the core of the target market. NR should have had the skill and the car to make the pass. Loosing traction like that only underlined MV as the hero in that duel. I suppose it was the least they could focus on after dropping the ball for DR… once again.