Toto Wolff believes Red Bull’s dominance over the past 18 months is different to the Mercedes era when they won eight consecutive Constructors’ Championships because Lewis Hamilton had a more competitive rival in the same garage compared to Max Verstappen. Red Bull have won every race this season with Verstappen already close to sealing his third World Championship.
It originally looked as though the Dutchman would have a fight on his hands from Sergio Perez after the Red Bull duo won two races each to start the year. But the Mexican failed to continue that form and went through a worrying period of failing to make it into Q3.
It was a similar story last year with Perez unable to truly challenge Verstappen’s dominance in the same car. Red Bull’s advantage over the rest of the field has been likened to the years where Mercedes were comfortably leading the pack.
Hamilton was the one constant during that period with the Brit winning six titles between 2014 and 2020. Nico Rosberg managed to stop Hamilton winning seven in a row with his victory in 2016 before he was replaced by Valtteri Bottas.
While Mercedes were far and away the best in the Constructors’ Championship, Wolff believes his driver line-up was often competitive enough to make the season somewhat ‘entertaining’ – something he doesn’t think can be said for the current Red Bull team. “I don’t know whether our dominance was similar or less [than Red Bull’s],” he said.
“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.”