Toto Wolff calls Max Verstappen an ‘inferior package’ to rival not at Mercedes

Toto Wolff insists Max Verstappen was an ‘inferior package’ to Esteban Ocon when the duo competed in the Formula 3 junior series. The pair often went head-to-head in their younger days before becoming Formula One stars, with Ocon coming out on top. 

In 2014, the Frenchman won the Championship for Prema Powerteam, finishing ahead of British driver Tom Blomqvist and the future F1 champion Verstappen. Later that year, Ocon joined Mercedes’ driver development team but never made it to the Silver Arrows’ F1 line-up. 

Ocon finally made his breakthrough two years later at Manor, but Verstappen had already started with Toro Rosso and would later join Red Bull. However, Wolff has revealed that it was Ocon, not Verstappen, who enjoyed more ‘hype’ in their teenage years. 

In hindsight, the Austrian believed Verstappen’s vehicle was the ‘inferior package’. Although it was not clear that he would go on to dominate F1. 

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“Back in the day I think there wasn’t huge hype around Max, because Max and Van Amersfoort weren’t winning the championship that year. Esteban won in a more competitive car,” Wolff, who failed to sign Verstappen to Mercedes, told ESPN. 

“So the insiders knew that Max probably was in an inferior package and in his first year, and the insiders knew there was a very good one coming, but it wasn’t clear that he was that good at that stage.

“You can only say when someone grows in Formula One and matures that he is a true world champion – an outstanding one. Before we had Lewis and then Michael Schumacher and before that [Ayrton] Senna.

“Who is the next one? Was it clear that Max would step into these shoes? It wasn’t clear back then.”

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Verstappen and Ocon have had differing careers, despite both making an early breakthrough into F1. The Dutchman, who rides for the dominant Red Bull, is on course to win a third-consecutive World Drivers’ Championship. 

Having won five of the seven races so far, the 25-year-old is likely to scoop his third prize. His first came following an incredible battle with Wolff’s Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton. 

Meanwhile, Ocon’s solitary F1 race win came in bizarre fashion at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, when the Alpine ace remained the only car on the circuit. The 26-year-old has recorded three podiums in his career, and is ninth in the 2023 drivers’ leaderboard with 25 points. 

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