Red Bull dominance bad for F1? 'We need to do a better job'
F1 News
- Ludo van Denderen
Nineteen Grand Prix victories Max Verstappen managed to grab in 2023; more than anyone else ever managed in Formula 1 history. The three-time world champion's fans undoubtedly love it, neutral supporters and certainly Mercedes supporters may not like it as much.
During an interview with the international media - in which GPblog was present - an Italian journalist asked Wolff if he feared that such dominance by one driver is bad for Formula 1? " The numbers we have seen are strong," the Mercedes team boss told them. "We are growing on social media, we are seeing races that are packed and sold out. I don't know what the Italian TV numbers look like, whether they have dropped or not, but basically, it's about spectacle and if the spectacle is not good, our fans will follow us less."
"But I think what I always say in sport; I like the fairness [in sport]. The spectacle follows the sport. And sport, it's a meritocracy; if someone does the best work, wins and does it much better than everyone else, they win 19 races. You can't actually stop that. So we, Ferrari and all the other teams have to do a better job so we can compete with Red Bull Racing and we can't change everything."
Mercedes recognises the situation
Still, Wolff can well imagine some people abandoning Formula 1 because of its predictability. "Of course, there is a risk that with a particular race, people say, 'I know in advance the result', as we had for years with Lewis. But we just have to do better. And I don't want to wait until 2026 with that," he ends his argument combatively.
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