Toto Wolff has revealed what he believes Max Verstappen needs to be able to fight for the championship next season, likely against Kimi Antonelli.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Verstappen sits sixth in the drivers’ standings on 145 points after 14 rounds of the 2026 campaign, some 147 points adrift of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli at the top.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Red Bull, meanwhile, has slipped to fourth in the constructors’ championship on 230 points, well behind a dominant Mercedes outfit that leads on 503.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Asked by OE24 whether Red Bull could get back on track for 2027 and set up a title fight between Verstappen and Antonelli, the Mercedes team principal was careful not to write off the four-time champion, while stressing that machinery, not just talent, decides championships.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“Max is the most exceptional driver of this generation, but he also needs the car and the engine to compete for a world championship,” Wolff said.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“He has to be the best driver in the best car with the best engine.”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tToto Wolff stresses against Kimi Antonelli comparisons<\/p>\n
Antonelli has won eight races in 2026, including a breakthrough triumph in China, a title-leading victory in Japan and an emotional home win at Monza after starting 19th following an engine penalty.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Wolff’s message, for now, is to let the numbers speak for themselves without forcing the comparison to Verstappen.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Wolff was also asked whether Antonelli, now the championship leader in only his second F1 season, was approaching Verstappen’s level as a driver. The Austrian was reluctant to draw any parallel between the two.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“You can’t compare a four-time world champion with a rookie in his second Formula 1 year who has only won a little over a handful of races,” Wolff said.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“Besides, you shouldn’t put too much pressure on Kimi. On the other hand, you can’t overstate what he’s achieved so far.”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toto Wolff has revealed what he believes Max Verstappen needs to be able to fight for the championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,827,817,830,828,831,829,826,813,816,823,825,824,822,85],"class_list":["post-893353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motorsport","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}