'Lately, Toto Has Been Really Nice': Verstappen Aware Of Mercedes Interest After Praise

Monday, 08 April 2024 at 00:30

Max Verstappen was in a good mood during the press conference after the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix, acknowledging Toto Wolff's praise.

The Dutch driver has won every race that he has finished in the 2024 F1 season so far, and his dominant win at the Suzuka Circuit once again proved that he's probably the fastest driver on the grid right now.

As such, it's not surprising that other teams would likely be interested in the Dutchman's services, even though he has a valid contract with Red Bull until the 2028 season.

However, during the recent dramatic weeks in the Red Bull team, the three-time World Champion suggested that if some key figures left the team, he would consider leaving the team as well.

That seemed to excite Mercedes' team principal, Toto Wolff, who has spoken highly about the 26-year-old ever since, even though Helmut Marko stated that he would be unsuccessful in trying to sign Verstappen.

During the press conference after the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix, Verstappen was told that Wolff said that with performance like in Japan, he probably already has the Championship in the bag, to which he responded with a funny remark.

"Lately, Toto has been really nice, saying a lot of nice things about me!"

Getting back to the initial question, Verstappen said that even though he's been the leader of the World Drivers' Championship since the beginning, it was still only fourth race of the season.

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"No, I don't know. It's still a very long season. I don't want to think about the rest of the season too much. I really want to approach it race by race."

Therefore, the three-time World Champion wants to approach it race by race, hoping to keep adding wins, while keeping in mind that at some tracks in the 24-race calendar, other teams may be stronger than Red Bull.

"I know there will be tracks coming up that might not be so favourable for us, but then, of course, when we do get to tracks where we know that we can be quick, we have to really take advantage of it and score the maximum amount of points as a team, and that's what we'll continue to try and do."

"And then, of course, I think we know that we get to tracks where maybe it's a bit more difficult we have to try and maximise that as well, where maybe other teams can win as well."