MONZA, Italy — Mercedes boss Toto Wolff feels any moves Formula One makes to cut Red Bull’s dominance would be a step towards WWE-style scripted content.
Max Verstappen could win a record 10th straight victory at Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.
The Dutchman’s dominance this year has led to questions about whether F1 should change the rules, as has happened in the past, to cut the lead team’s advantage.
Wolff, who presided over eight straight Mercedes championships before Red Bull claimed the constructors’ title last year, says Red Bull’s nine rivals just need to catch them up.
When asked what he felt about the prospect of rule changes to rein in Red Bull, he said: “As a team principal, I don’t want to jump on a bandwagon that others have done in the past of saying ‘we need to change the regulations because we can’t continue with the dominance of a team’. If a team in a way dominates in a way Max has done with Red Bull, then fair do’s. This is a meritocracy.
“As long as you comply to the regulations, technical, sporting and financial, you just need to say ‘well done.’ It is up to us to catch up, and if that takes a long time, then it takes a long time.
“I remember people crying foul when it was us. Entertainment follows sport and not the other way around. We cannot be WWE, scripted content. We don’t want to be scripted content.”
F1 already has a planned regulation change for 2026 with the introduction of new engine rules, but there are no discussions behind the scenes about making any tweaks before then.
Small regulation changes have had big consequences in previous seasons. In 2021, the FIA tweaked the rules around the floor of the car, ostensibly to reduce the strain on Pirelli’s tyres, but it was also seen as one of the reasons Red Bull was able to fight toe to toe with Mercedes that year — a season that ended with Verstappen beating Lewis Hamilton in a controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix showdown.
“I think we probably lost the 2021 drivers’ championships for many reasons. One was the final race. We also lost it because those regulations were set in place in order to reduce the advantage that we had. 2020 was a super dominant year for us. I think it was the best car we ever had.
“Towards the end of the season, they changed the regulations by cutting the floor out, and that was to stop us. You could see the results in 2021; we were not as competitive as Red Bull was, but in Silverstone we unlocked more potential of the car and got us back in the championship.
“But back in the day, these regs were clearly targeted to reestablish the pecking order.”