Mercedes boss Toto Wolff confident his team 'can beat Max Verstappen'

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is confident his team can eventually beat Max Verstappen and Red Bull. The Austrian exec believes his team has the 'best drivers' and people capable enough to challenge the Bulls next year.

Mercedes was surpassed by McLaren in Silverstone, with Lando Norris finishing ahead of Lewis Hamilton in Britain. While the Woking-based team has made significant strides to the top, the Silver Arrows have working upgrades that helped them inch closer to Red Bull.

Wolff has complete faith in his team, expressing support for not only Lewis Hamilton and George Russell but also the rest of the Brackley squad. The Austrian believes the team can eventually challenge and dethrone Max Verstappen, who is currently the dominant force in the sport.

Speaking after the 2023 F1 British GP, Toto Wolff said, as quoted by SilverArrows.net:

“I always believe that we can beat Max. We have a good group of people, best drivers, we just have to give them a car and it’s more predictable.”

Giving Hamilton and Russell a more predictable car is high up on the team's priority list, as the drivers are known to struggle with the inconsistent W14.

F1 pundit analyzed Max Verstappen's drive at Silverstone

F1 journalist Peter Windsor looked at Verstappen's win in Britain, claiming that it is easy to underestimate how hard the Dutchman had to work to win. Windsor claims the RB19 was not in its usual 'sweet spot', resulting in the two-time world champion having to work for the win.

The Red Bull driver initially lost the lead to Lando Norris, who started behind him in P2. Despite losing position, Verstappen went on to win in Britain, maintaining the RB19's perfect record in 2023.

Speaking on his YouTube channel about the British GP, Windsor initially urged people not to take Max Verstappen's driving for granted since it was somewhat difficult for him to pull off a victory. He said:

"It’s very easy to underestimate how good a job Max did today. The car was not in the same sort of sweet spot that it is usually, it was still very good, there are still a lot of good things about the RB19,"

"But Max actually had to do a lot more sort of knife-edgy driving, very finger-tippy, just make sure he got everything right."

With the gap between teams slowly reducing, it will be interesting to see if anyone dethrone Verstappen in 2023.