Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has claimed that Max Verstappen’s dominance in F1 is boring due to the lack of threat posed by Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez. These comments come in contrast to those of commentator David Croft, who has called out the fans who are complaining about the Dutchman’s supremacy.
Toto Wolff idea made Lewis Hamilton want to ‘puke’ as Brit shut down boss
With the popularity of F1 among casual sports fans sky-rocketing, there was widespread hope that the on-track product would improve for 2023 with closer racing and a prolonged title fight, but thanks to the efforts of the unstoppable Verstappen, the aforementioned title fight lasted all of five races.
Perez came out of the blocks fighting in the opening rounds of the season, taking victories in Jeddah and Baku to spark hopes of an inter-team fight. Since then, however, Verstappen has recorded eight straight Grand Prix victories, all but mathematically wrapping up his third successive title.
Mercedes boss Wolff has not been impressed by the entertainment value of Verstappen’s domination, stating: “I don’t know whether our dominance was similar or less as I think we had years where we did it in the same way, but at least we had two cars that were fighting each other.
“So that caused a little bit of entertainment for everyone, and that’s not the case at the moment,” Wolff continued. “It is what it is and I often say that it’s a meritocracy and it’s up to us to fight back.”
The Austrian team principal’s viewpoint has been shared by fans this season, but exacerbated by the relative struggles of his team. Mercedes have been forced to feed off scraps in 2023 with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton collecting four podiums and George Russell stepping onto the podium only once.
Wolff’s views were not shared by David Croft though. Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, the iconic commentator exclaimed: “All I would say is if you think the sight of cars going at 200 miles an hour plus, or doing 170 miles an hour through Maggotts and Becketts, or showing the most supreme engineering challenge, in the hands of some of the most talented human beings ever to grab hold of a steering wheel, where we’re at tracks where you’re millimetres away from ruining your afternoon for 70-odd laps in a race… if you think that’s boring, I can’t help you. I really can’t.
“It is so so easy to run with the herd here and say ‘Oh it’s boring because Max keeps winning’. Why not marvel at the record? At the excellence, at the consistency and to be that good for so long.”
