Max Verstappen won the Singapore Grand Prix on 11 October, a second straight victory after Malaysia, and Toto Wolff left Marina Bay sounding more impressed than alarmed about this season.
“Really you need to take your hat off to what Red Bull has done this season,” Wolff told reporters at Singapore, via Motorsport.com.
“How they have developed the car and how it’s all come together as a package and then you put Max Verstappen in the car and when he feels that this thing is driving like he wants it to drive then you know these are the results.”
The context behind the praise is comfortable for Mercedes. Kimi Antonelli still leads the drivers’ standings by 102 points over George Russell, with Lewis Hamilton third on 229, Verstappen fourth on 221 and Charles Leclerc fifth on 215.
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Verstappen’s deficit to the top is 119 points with six rounds left. The 19th round is the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas on 23 to 25 October, and Antonelli’s margin is already big enough that he could seal the title in Austin if his rivals cannot close the gap across the weekend.
‘Next year it’s full on’
What stood out in Wolff’s remarks was where he aimed his warning. The Austrian was not talking about the next six races. He was talking about 2027.
“One thing is for sure,” Wolff said. “You know, next year, it’s full on the fight between the teams, and Red Bull is part of that.”
Red Bull’s resurgence this season has coincided with the arrival of Formula 1’s new power unit regulations, and Wolff singled out the Red Bull Powertrains engine as a reason the car has come alive in the second half of the year.
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The ICE, the internal combustion part of the hybrid unit, “seems to be very competitive,” he said, adding that Red Bull’s energy recovery and deployment also looked “pretty good.”
Mercedes still chasing an upgrade
For now, Mercedes’ concern is closer to home. Wolff admitted the team’s latest package has not delivered what it was supposed to, even if it was a step forward.
“Was it an easy car today like the previous one? I don’t think it was,” he said of the Singapore weekend. “Does it have the performance that we were hoping the upgrade would bring? I don’t think so yet. But it was a step in the right direction and in Austin we should see whether we can continue to consolidate that.”
The team ran two different specifications in Singapore to accelerate what Wolff called the “learning curve.” Antonelli recovered to third in the race, behind Verstappen and Leclerc, which was enough to keep the title lead largely intact.
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Verstappen, meanwhile, has moved to within 17 points of Russell for second in the standings. He will not catch Antonelli unless the Mercedes driver’s season collapses, but the second half of the year has already answered a different question for Wolff: next season’s title fight will not be a Mercedes walkover.
The United States Grand Prix is on Sunday 25 October at Circuit of The Americas in Austin.
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