Max Verstappen has responded to the latest praise from Mercedes' Toto Wolff as he seeks a Lewis Hamilton replacement.
Verstappen cruised to a third win from four races to start the 2024 season, and it was his 22nd win from 26 attempts since the start of 2023 as he equalled Michael Schumacher in winning at Suzuka for three consecutive years.
Verstappen's long-term future with the team has been called into question following the ongoing power struggle at Red Bull after off-track controversies, with Wolff needing to find a replacement for Ferrari-bound Hamilton.
Speaking after the race, Wolff lavished praise on Verstappen - who has been tipped to replace his former title rival for 2025, but Verstappen quickly connected the dots.
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"Lately, Toto has been really nice, saying a lot of nice things about me," he told media including RacingNews365.
"It's still a very long season. I don't want to think about the rest of the season too much. I really want to approach it race by race.
"I know there will be tracks coming up that might not be so favourable for us, but then, of course, when we do get to tracks where we know that we can be quick, we have to really take advantage of it and score the maximum amount of points as a team, and that's what we'll continue to try and do.
"I think we know that we get to tracks where maybe it's a bit more difficult we have to try and maximise that as well, where maybe other teams can win as well."
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