Mercedes flew out of the blocks as the strongest team with the W17, but McLaren, Ferrari and now Red Bull have emerged as challengers as the season has progressed, all taking race victories at different times this season.
Red Bull in particular started the season on the back foot, with the team often fourth-fastest in the field as the RB22 was sometimes up to 1.5 seconds per lap off the pace of its rivals.
Steadily, though, Red Bull has made strides which have brought the RB22 into contention and, with Mercedes as-yet uncertain as to how effective its latest upgrade package has been, Max Verstappen has won each of the last two races comfortably.
While in all likelihood too late to challenge for the championship, Wolff highlighted how Red Bull has brought itself back into the picture as reasoning behind why all of the top four teams could be title challengers next year.
“Really, you need to take you take your hat off to what Red Bull has done this season,” Wolff said.
“How they have developed the car, and how it’s all come together as a package. And then you put Max Verstappen in the car, and when he feels that this thing is driving like he wants it to drive, then these are the results.
“He’s been by far the quickest guy [in Singapore], he’s been the quickest guy in Kuala Lumpur, and let’s see – when our upgrade hopefully starts to work and land in a place where we think it should be, whether we can be competitive against him.
“But, one thing is for sure: next year it’s full-on the fight between the teams, and Red Bull is part of that.”
Red Bull technical director, Pierre Waché, spoke about how the team’s development schedule has been able to catapult them back into contention this year.
Starting off with a “fundamental weakness”, Red Bull has addressed problems with steering, weight and energy management through the course of the season, with Verstappen having gone on to win back-to-back races as the year has progressed.
