Toto Wolff: Verstappen’s still in this title fight — but it’ll take a swing
Max Verstappen left Baku with something more valuable than a trophy: momentum. Two wins on the bounce have trimmed Oscar Piastri’s championship lead from a chunky 104 points to 69, and the conversation has shifted from “when does McLaren wrap this up?” to “hang on, are we sure?”
Toto Wolff isn’t committing to the plot twist just yet, but he’s not ruling it out either.
“You always need to stay with your feet on the ground and humble,” the Mercedes boss said after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. “He’s had a good run, the car is good and with Max Verstappen, you always need to be wary of what he can achieve. What’s the gap? Sixty-nine points. That’s the long shot. Things need to work in his favour. But you can see a DNF for the championship leader, Max scoring 25 points — it can swing quickly.”
It’s classic Wolff: realism with a side of respect for the driver who’s turned damage limitation into an art form. Verstappen’s Baku win — decisive, clinical, more or less the standard template — has put the reigning World Champion back in range. Still distant, yes, but not out of sight.
The reigning champion himself kept his head down in the aftermath, talking race-to-race rather than big-picture. Fair enough. The big picture remains demanding: points on Sundays, no mistakes, and probably a little luck with McLaren’s bulletproof execution.
Wolff has reasons to mind the Verstappen resurgence beyond the drivers’ standings. Mercedes are locked in a hard-nosed scrap for P2 in the Constructors’ Championship — a target they haven’t hit since 2023 — and the “point machine” in the Red Bull is the fly in that ointment.
“It’s a tough fight,” Wolff said. “They’ve got some solid points today and Max is a point machine.” As it stands, Mercedes hold second place by just four points over Ferrari, with Red Bull only 18 further back. That’s the kind of margin that evaporates in a single rough weekend.
Baku itself offered Mercedes plenty to like. George Russell banked a clean P2, Kimi Antonelli backed him with P4, and the W16 looked planted in the right moments. “A strong weekend for us as a team,” Wolff said. “It felt good to get back on the podium in P2 and for Kimi to bring home solid points. Of course, we’re always hoping for the top step, but this gives us positive momentum after two difficult races after the summer break.”
That word, momentum, is doing a lot of work up and down the pit lane right now. McLaren have had it most of the year, often with both Piastri and Lando Norris pulling heavy points. Ferrari have flashed it but not always held it. Mercedes are trying to bottle it. And Verstappen — well, he’s made a career out of bending it his way.
Singapore is next, and Wolff expects a shuffle. “Completely different game,” he noted. Street tracks tend to magnify ride quality, traction and patience, and while the form book says McLaren and Ferrari should be strong, this season’s pendulum has been happy to defy the neat predictions.
For Verstappen, the math is straightforward enough. He needs to keep winning or at least finishing ahead of Piastri, and hope the McLaren camp suffers a stumble. He doesn’t need a miracle — but one McLaren DNF here or a safety-car sting there would go a long way.
For Mercedes, the directive is simpler: outscore Ferrari and keep Red Bull in the mirrors. That means more Russell podiums, more Antonelli consistency, and no messy Saturdays that leave them to pick fights from the wrong postcode on Sunday.
The tenor of Wolff’s message was clear. No chest-beating, no melodrama. Just a cautious nod to the one driver you never count out, even with 69 points to claw back.
Verstappen’s title bid? Still a long shot. But after Baku, it’s a live one. And that alone changes the temperature of this championship.
