Wolff stunned by Red Bull: 'McLaren now clear favourites for the F1 title'

Toto Wolff is stunned by Red Bull Racing, who had their worst Formula 1 weekend in a long time. At the same time, the Mercedes team boss stresses that the reigning F1 world champions cannot be written off.

Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez finished no further than sixth and eighth, respectively, in the Italian Grand Prix. The poor weekend logically worried Red Bull, but the competition is also watching in amazement as the performance of the initially dominant F1 team drops away.

"That's really weird. I have no insight obviously but that is not at all the Red Bull of the start of the year - dominant. I think that Max was able to keep it going for a while with his abilities, but it seems from the sheer results - that's what I see without knowing what's going on inside, because it could be a blip - that was probably one of the worst races we've seen for many years, to have no pace," Wolff stated to GPblog and others.

He continues: "But who am I to say that? We've had two years where nothing functioned and the same with Ferrari a few races ago. So I don't think you can write them off. They are a formidable team and I'm sure there will be better races, but McLaren are clearly the favourites now for the Constructor Championship. They have two drivers scoring. I bet Red Bull didn't expect that at the beginning of the year."