Red Bull has dominated Formula One since 2022 after the regulation changes and Max Verstappen is the driver the beat. The Dutchman has won a staggering 36 out of the 46 races since the return of ground effect cars, with Red Bull taking out 40 overall.
Meanwhile, 8 in a row Constructors’ Championship winners Mercedes have fallen into a slump. Team Principal Toto Wolff has stated that he has chosen the high road and will not call for changes, referring to Christian Horner’s words from 2015 when Mercedes was dominating the sport themselves.
“Mercedes have done a super job, they have a good car, a fantastic engine and they have two very good drivers. The problem is that the gap is so big that you end up with three-tier racing. That is not healthy for F1,” Horner said back in 2015.
He even suggested that the FIA must come up with a solution regarding the performance gap on the engine side so that there is some close racing action.
“They [the FIA] have a power output so they can see what every power unit is producing. They have the facts. They could quite easily come up with a way of some form of equalisation.”
Now that Red Bull has been dominating the sport for a couple of years, Toto Wolff will not go down the same road. He stated that he will not fall into the “trap” and urge the FIA to change the rules.
Between 2014 to 2016, Mercedes only lost in 8 races as they wiped the floor with the opposition in the first 3 years of the V6 era.
“I don’t want to fall in the trap of a fellow team principal from next door in 2014/15 who said we should change the regs because it’s too dominant,” Wolff said.
He also stated that he respects all the success Red Bull has achieved over the last couple of years and they deserve it.
“I think they [Red Bull] have done by far the best job of all the teams over the last two years, and credit where credit is due. I mean, they are literally disappearing in the distance as they want and there’s nobody else close.
“It’s just that they are in a different league. And our sport is an honest sport. The best performance is being rewarded from car, from machine and man.”
Mercedes is currently out of contention for victories on a consistent basis. But the regulations are set to change in 2026 and it is possible that the Brackley-based team will be able to bounce back from their relatively poor showings after the change.
