Wolff: 'Verstappen and Hamilton not crossing the line on track yet'

The duel that everyone in Formula 1 has been waiting for is finally here in 2021: Lewis Hamilton vs. Max Verstappen. The two top drivers will only be satisfied with victories and championships and that could lead to some tough battles on the track. Yet Toto Wolff sees the title contenders respecting each other on track.

"They are not crossing the line on track yet. But it is going to go head to head, and the rivalry may increase or not but Lewis is completely relaxed about the situation," Wolff reports in an interview with The Guardian. According to the Mercedes team boss, Hamilton is extremely motivated this season. "He enjoys working with the team getting us up to speed because we weren’t there and now this [Mercedes] is just is a fun place.”

Hamilton very consistent

The 36-year-old Briton now has seven world titles behind his name. Six of those were won in the last seven seasons. It shows that Hamilton has been very consistent over a long period of time. In Portimao, he was faultless for almost the entire weekend. "Lewis just drove an immaculate race. It makes no sense to talk of these exceptional Lewis performances because they have been quite regular, it is his standard now and he sets that standard himself."

For Valtteri Bottas, the same is not true. The Finn was already struggling to be consistently close to Hamilton in 2020 and that trend seems to have continued this season. Bottas is not yet able to put as much pressure on Verstappen as Wolff would like, although that was also due to problems with a sensor during the Portuguese Grand Prix. It cost the second Mercedes driver about five seconds.