Sport

Mercedes’ Toto Wolff concedes Red Bull are on course to win every race this year

Verstappen won the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday and in so doing took a 10th consecutive win, a feat never before achieved in F1.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen celebrating on the podium after the Italian Grand Prix at Autodromo Nazionale Monza circuit in Monza on September 3th, 2023. Photograph: Marco Bertorello/AFP
Red Bull's Max Verstappen celebrating on the podium after the Italian Grand Prix at Autodromo Nazionale Monza circuit in Monza on September 3th, 2023. Photograph: Marco Bertorello/AFP
Giles Richards at Monza
Mon Sept 04 2023 - 18:35

The Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, said he believes Red Bull and Max Verstappen are on course to remain unbeaten this season and achieve an unprecedented clean sweep of Formula One wins, which Wolff admitted would be admirable for its “perfection”.

Verstappen won the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday and in so doing took a 10th consecutive win, a feat never before achieved in F1. His Red Bull team have been dominant all season and remain unbeaten. Indeed with the exception of the Brazilian GP in 2022 they have now won 24 of the last 25 races, a run which includes 15 in a row since last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, itself another record.

After the race Wolff had been dismissive of Verstappen’s achievement, describing it as “completely irrelevant”, that it was of interest only to Wikipedia entries and not an accomplishment he would have paid attention to when Mercedes were similarly dominating the sport between 2014 and 2020.

Verstappen now leads the world championship by 145 points from team-mate Sergio Pérez and could win the title as soon as the Japanese GP with six races remaining. Red Bull are 310 points clear of Mercedes, who are second, in the constructors’ championship.

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When asked if Red Bull could be beaten at any of the remaining eight meetings, Wolff was unequivocal. “No, I think they need to screw it up themselves,” he said.

However he went on to say that should they do so it would be a record he would acknowledge. “They are on track to win every race this season and that, by the way, is a record that I would think is a good one, because that is perfection. We didn’t make it in 2016 because our two drivers pushed each other out in Barcelona and then we had an engine failure in Malaysia.”

In 2016 Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg dominated, taking victory in 19 of 21 races. The next round in two weeks in Singapore, a night race on a street circuit, may present the best chance for a team to challenge Red Bull for a win, which was acknowledged by the Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.

“We’re racing against some massive opponents, and we’re just taking it one race at a time,” he said. “The next race, Singapore, it’s a street circuit, it’s one of the toughest on the calendar. We saw last year how perilous it can be. We’ll just do our best to keep this momentum running.”

Horner also recognised that this extraordinary period of success could not go on indefinitely but made it clear there would be no relaxation of the intensity of Red Bull’s efforts to maintain what has become an absolute stranglehold on the championship.

“One day we’re going to get beaten, that’s inevitable, guaranteed,” he said. “It’s just a question of when and we’ve just got to make the when as far away as we can. I think with every weekend that goes past there’s more expectation to keep up this amazing run of results.”