Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes it would be wrong to “write off” Red Bull despite admitting that McLaren is now the “favourite” to win the Formula 1 championship.
Red Bull’s struggles worsened at the Italian Grand Prix as Max Verstappen trailed home in sixth place behind both Ferraris, McLarens and Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes.
The reigning champions seem poised to surrender the Constructors’ Championship, as McLaren’s double podium at Monza has reduced the gap down to eight points.
However, even Verstappen, who boasts a 62-point lead over Lando Norris with eight events to go, has conceded that retaining his title is “not realistic” on current form.
But although Wolff is bewildered with Red Bull’s rapid decline over this season, he has insisted that the Austrian outfit has the tools to rebound in the upcoming races.
“It’s really strange, this is not the dominant Red Bull of the beginning of the year,” Wolff said.
“I think Max was able to keep it up for a while with his skill, but this is probably one of their worst races in many years. But who am I to say?
“We had two years without anything working for us. It was the same for Ferrari a few races ago, so I don’t think we can write Red Bull off.
“They have a formidable team and I’m sure there will be better races for them, even if McLaren is now the clear favourite for the Constructors’ Championship.”
Mercedes endured an underwhelming outing as Hamilton was a distant fifth, while George Russell’s error at Turn 1 on the first lap saw him drop four places to eighth.
Despite Monza being a more competitive showing than Zandvoort, the marque has been unable to replicate the pace that saw it log three wins in four up to the break.
Wolff has declared that Mercedes must now optimise the time before the next round in Azerbaijan to get a grasp on the reasons behind its recent dip in performance.
“Our race was better than Zandvoort, but still not good,” Wolff admitted.
“We ran a two-stop strategy because we suffered from graining on the front left tyre, which made a single stop unlikely.
“Our pace today made it difficult to get much more than we achieved.
“In the last two races, we have not reached the level we had before the summer shutdown.
“When you don’t have the pace, strategic decisions become difficult, as we saw today. We have some time to analyse the reasons before Baku and aim to come back stronger.”
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