Verstappen responds to Wolff: Is Red Bull really the benchmark this season?

Verstappen told GPblog: “Let’s look back at the last 10 years of winter testing — I don’t think you can say who is going to be world champion on day one, especially with a new ruleset like this.

“For me personally, it’s more like diversion tactics, but that’s okay. I focus on what we’re doing here with the team, because honestly for us there’s still so much to learn. These new regulations are so complex that we just want to do our laps and go from there, to be honest.”

Verstappen is responding to remarks Toto Wolff made on the first day of testing in Bahrain. The Austrian was full of praise for the new Red Bull. He called it ‘the benchmark’. The Mercedes team boss also said that with Verstappen in the car, Red Bull was even stronger.

Wolff’s comments are based on the deployment of the engine’s electrical power. The Mercedes team boss sees that Red Bull “can run ten consecutive laps with the same deployment.” As a result, Red Bull was a second faster than the rest on Wednesday, across multiple runs in a row.