F1 News: Mercedes Chief Bows To Red Bull Dominance- "It P*sses Me Off"

Toto Wolff admits that Red Bull's Max Verstappen is untouchable right now.

In a surprising turn of events, Toto Wolff, team principal of Mercedes, openly acknowledged the superior performance of Red Bull's driver, Max Verstappen. Wolff voiced his frustration over Verstappen's unrivalled level, saying, “I think Verstappen is just on a different level. It p*sses me off to say that but that is the reality.”

Wolff's candid confession came amid the stark reality of Mercedes' struggle to land one of their cars on the front row behind the Dutch driver. Following a shift in design philosophy, Mercedes has been grappling to keep up with Red Bull's fast-paced progress. Despite the expectation for better performance, Wolff conceded that Mercedes is currently trailing in Red Bull's wake.

“That’s why the disappointment is big because we expected more,” Wolff admitted. “Having said that, if you look at the gaps it was very, very compressed with everyone. You can get it wrong easily.”

“You can see that Leclerc is out in Q1, Perez is out in Q2, so that’s a bit of a mystery today,” he added. “The wind changed 180 degrees and some were caught out, maybe, because of that.”

The Austrian's trust in their recent design overhaul stays strong, however:

“I believe in the package," he assured the press. “It is a new baseline, it is from where we can continue to work on with a certain stability without needing to questions certain parts of the car, whether it’s the bodywork, the floor, the front suspension that is now established.

"This is what we are taking forward now.”

Verstappen's dominance remains unchallenged. He cruised to pole position by an impressive margin, without needing to finish his final qualifying lap because he was still so far ahead.

“I think Verstappen is just on a different level. It pisses me off to say that but that is the reality.

“There is a meritocracy, they’ve just done the best job, the driver’s driving excellent and they are just far away.

"And that is something which only we have in our hands to get under control.”

George Russell's attempt to make it to Q3 was unfruitful, a situation Wolff ascribed to an unfavourable set-up decision.

"It was clear from the beginning that the set-up direction we went with George made the car worse... That’s something which we need to unwind now to understand exactly what we could have done differently.”

An interesting weekend for Mercedes, and certainly one offering plenty of information to analyse going forward.