Wolff: F1 in ‘strong’ position despite Red Bull domination

Toto Wolff asserts that there should be no concerns over the popularity of Formula 1 despite Max Verstappen easing to a third consecutive title, virtually unrivalled.

Red Bull tallied 21 wins in 22 races in 2023, faltering only at the Singapore Grand Prix in September.

19 of those victories came through Verstappen who eased his way to the Championship 290 points ahead of runner-up and team-mate Sergio Perez.

This year, Mercedes endured its first winless season since 2011 after retaining the flawed zero-pod concept that the Silver Arrows introduced for 2022.

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The project was abandoned in time for May’s Monaco Grand Prix and while improvements and podiums followed, the overhaul failed to erase Red Bull’s advantage over the field. Mercedes finished second in the standings, some 451 points adrift of the champions.

Since the beginning of the current regulation cycle in 2022, Verstappen has carried Red Bull to 34 victories in 45 attempts. The feat is an undeniably impressive sporting accomplishment, but coinciding with a continued growth in F1’s popularity, how damaging could it prove?

“The numbers that we are seeing are strong,” asserted Wolff when asked if F1 could ‘survive’ another year of dominance.

“We are growing on social media, we see that races are packed and sold out, but as a matter of fact, it is all around the spectacle, and if the spectacle is not good, our fans are going to follow us less.

“What I always say is that I like the honesty in that the spectacle always follows the sport, and the sport is a meritocracy.

“Whoever is doing the best job wins, and if somebody is doing a much better job, then they win [21] races, and you can’t stop that.”

If F1 is to capture and more importantly maintain its growing audience, the onus falls on the nine other teams on the grid to step up their game, perform and battle tooth and nail for top honours.

“Us, Ferrari and all the other teams have to do a better job to compete with Red Bull and if we can’t change anything, then people are going to say [before the race]: ‘Well I know the result.’

“It happened to us with Lewis many years ago, but you’ve just got to do a better job. I don’t want to wait until 2026.”

Wolff oversaw Mercedes run of eight consecutive Constructors’ titles between 2014 and 2021, a time period which also delivered six of Hamilton’s seven titles.