“Max Is the Only Constant”: Toto Wolff Deploys Verstappen as His Masterplan to Deflect Criticism Away From Mercedes

As the Greek Philosopher, Heraclitus rightly said, “The only thing that is constant is change,” which stands true for F1 as well. The rise of Red Bull and Mercedes is the best and most recent example. No one team or driver can stay on top of the sport and change is inevitable. However, sometimes it doesn’t feel like it and currently, Max Verstappen is the reason behind that. Verstappen’s superiority over the rest of the grid is making him look unbeatable. Currently, the Dutchman is the only constant in the sport and even Toto Wolff admitted to that in a recent statement. Although, the Mercedes boss’s reasons were more to deflect than to appreciate.

Since the beginning of the 2022 season, the Austrian boss has been called to defend his team and drivers multiple times. Like any good boss, Wolff has been doing a good job at it as well. However, poor performances, results, and unreliability are piling up and Wolff is starting to run out of excuses. This is exactly why, as quoted by Auto-Motor-Und-Sport and revealed by @fiagirly on Twitter, Wolff used Verstappen as the scapegoat.

During a recent interview, an allegation of Mercedes’s inability to understand the W14 still is the reason behind the constant fluctuations in performance was revealed. To this, Wolff used Verstappen to defend his team. He said, “Even at Red Bull there are fluctuations. Max is the only constant in the field. I believe in the quality of our team.”

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Masterful play from Toto Wolff to deflect, as we are sure he is growing tired of defending the same car for over a year. Although, the Austrian does not shy away from assuming blame whenever necessary.

Despite accusing Max Verstappen of a revengeful foul, Toto Wolff assumes responsibility for the team’s blunder

As we all know, there was a lot of on-track drama during the Austrian GP. Amidst the chaos, the Brackley outfit made plenty of blunders and because of one of them, Lewis Hamilton suffered a shocking SQ1 exit. However, Verstappen also played a part in Hamilton’s show exit. Wolff even accused Verstappen of being revengeful. However, in the end, he was not completely oblivious to his team’s massive blunder.

“The mistake happened on our side,” confessed Toto Wolff. “The communication between us and Lewis didn’t give him the right information to get out of Max’s way. On the other side, Turn 1 was a revenge foul (by Verstappen). It was just to make sure that his (Hamilton’s) lap was ruined.”

“So one was not intentional, the other one was intentional–but who cares? But I think they’re going to talk about it at the drivers’ briefing next week,” added Wolff.

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The Austrian boss’s Austrian GP’s honest admission is another among a long list of admission of mistakes on the team’s behalf. This is a scenario Mercedes needs to change soon but is unable to. Let’s hope Mercedes doesn’t have to scrape the developmental journey they’ve taken on for the W14.