Wolff DEFENDS F1 rivals Red Bull over dominant start to season
Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff has defended long-term rivals Red Bull over their early-season stranglehold after the team featuring Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez dominated a Grand Prix for the second time in as many races.
Mexican Perez won in Saudi Arabia on Sunday by five seconds from teammate Verstappen, with third place Fernando Alonso a further 15 seconds behind.
But Wolff, who owns a 33 per cent stake in a Mercedes F1 team who won eight consecutive constructors’ world championships, defended the dominance of their recent rivals.
Wolff: ‘We had those years’
“We have had those years where we were as strong, but it is a meritocracy,” he said.
“We shouldn’t talk it down because I remember hearing voices like that between 2014 and 2020. What makes the sport so special is that you need to work hard to win, and you deserve it, and that is matter of fact.
“Even if it is not great for the show that the same guys win all the time, it is because they have done a good job and we haven’t.
“We all hope for good entertainment and it is our duty to catch up and fight these guys. We will do everything in our power to fight back and we will look at areas of weakness that they may have.
“Entertainment follows sport and that [Red Bull’s dominance] is maybe not good for the commercial side but it is what makes Formula One so special.”
Mercedes’ dominance of the sport was so strong in the team’s glory years that it’s almost unfathomable to see the Silver Arrows struggling to get onto the podium.
Hamilton to stay?
Lewis Hamilton, who won six of his seven world titles with Mercedes, will come to the end of his contract at the conclusion of the season.
But Wolff insists 38-year-old Hamilton, who partners fellow Briton George Russell at the team, will stick around Formula 1.
“Lewis is a fighter and so are we,” he said. “If the fight is on, you stay and you fight and you don’t throw the towel in.
“That is how we all are in the team so that is why I have no reason to believe he is going to walk away from it.”
The Formula 1 season continues in a fortnight with the paddock travelling to Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix before a four-week break due to the cancellation of the Chinese Grand Prix following their Covid-19 restrictions.