Max Verstappen’s skill “kept it going” for Red Bull amid a sudden dip in performance, says Mercedes boss Toto Wolff

Toto Wolff has praised Max Verstappen for leading Red Bull amid a poor run. The Mercedes boss said that Verstappen was the one-man army steering his team as Red Bull kept losing performance with every race.

The Austrian team that started the season by winning seven out of 10 races (all by Verstappen), is now winless since Austria. Its last victory came in Spain, and since then it has been winless for six races, its worst run under the new regulations. Sergio Perez's underwhelming performances have also hampered the team's chances as it is a few points away from getting overtaken by McLaren in the Constructors' Championship.

Speaking about Verstappen's prowess, Wolff said (via Autosport):

"It is really weird. I have no insight obviously but that is not at all the Red Bull at the start of the year – dominant. I think that Max Verstappen was able to keep it going for a while with his ability, but it seems now that [the pace has gone] from the sheer results - and that is what I see without understanding or knowing what is going on inside - because it could be a blip, also.”

"But who am I to say that? We had two years where nothing functioned, and it was the same with Ferrari a few races ago. So I don’t think you can write them off, they are a formidable team and I’m sure there will be better races, but McLaren is clearly the favorite now for the Constructors' Championship, they have two drivers scoring and I bet Red Bull didn’t expect that at the beginning of the year."

There were five winners in the last six races, and Verstappen wasn't one.

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Max Verstappen calls for an overhaul of the RB20 to save championships

Lando Norris of McLaren (R) and Max Verstappen of Red Bull | Getty Images

Max Verstappen finished in P6 in the latest race in Monza, ahead of George Russell. His teammate came home in P8 in one of Red Bull's worst races since the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix where both the cars faced a DNF. Since this has everything to do with performance, Verstappen told Sky Sports F1 in his post-race interview that an overhaul of the RB20 is the way to go.

"If we don’t change anything on the car, it’s all going to be bad from now onwards to the end of the season, so we have a lot of work to do. It would still have been a bad race [without the engine issues], but at least maybe you are a bit more competitive. We were in no man’s land basically doing our own race."

Verstappen leads the Drivers' Championship by 62 points over McLaren's Lando Norris. His team Red Bull has a narrow eight-point lead over McLaren in the Constructors' Championship.