F1 Today | Pessimistic Wolff, can Norris do it? Interviews with Bottas and Durksen

With the F1 season set to start in a few days, GPblog brings you the most relevant news of the day in its habitual daily round up, F1 Today.

'Pessimistic by nature,' is how Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff describes himself, ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, which may be the right mentality as the Austrian looks to his team consolidating its performance in what is set to be a tight fight at the top.

Lando Norris has been questioned by analysts on his ability to extract the championship winning potential from his cars after he failed to do so last year, a theory that is not far-fetched particularly when compared to Max Verstappen's efforts in recent times, which have yielded four consecutive titles to his name.

Valtteri Bottas has stated what his approach to 'gap year' as Mercedes' third driver will be, and should an F1 comeback fail, he then reveals what other racing series he's fixing his eye on for the future.

Junior driver, Paraguayan Joshua Durksen, has outlined the goals ahead of his second F2 campaign, and knows what will be required of him and his team, AIX Racing, to meet them, as he reaches for the ultimate goal: earning an F1 seat.

Wolff has a bone to pick with Lewis Hamilton, after the Briton 'did on the first day at Ferrari,' what Wolff couldn't get him to do for 12 years at Mercedes. Jos Verstappen shuts down all talks regarding a potential Max Verstappen early exit from Red Bull Racing and confirms his son will race for the Austrian team in 2026.