Toto Wolff, principal of the Mercedes team, has called Max Verstappen’s record of 10 straight victories “completely irrelevant.” Verstappen drives for Red Bull.
With his win at Monza on Sunday, Verstappen extended Red Bull’s win streak to 10, one more than Sebastian Vettel managed in 2013 and one more than Mercedes managed between 2014 and 2020.
Wolff declared, “I don’t care about any of these kinds of records. In the midst of Mercedes’ success, they were unimportant.
I lost count of how many consecutive races we won. I had no idea there was a tally.
But Wolff did said that Verstappen’s results “show a great driver in a great car competing at an extremely high level.”
He continued his response to the question about Verstappen by saying, “By the way, that record, I would think it’s a good one, because it’s perfection.”
And he predicted that, barring an error, Red Bull would go on to win every race this season.
If they don’t want to win every race this season, Wolff thinks “they need to screw it up themselves.”
From Monza to Monaco, they were performing, and that’s fantastic,” Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur remarked. The thing I find most impressive, though, is that Max hasn’t made a single mistake in the races in the last two years; this isn’t just about the last 10 races.
It’s simpler to avoid blunders when you’re ahead of the pack, but he handles pressure effectively regardless of the score.
It’s incredible that there hasn’t been a single slip-up in both seasons.
Christian Horner, the leader of the Red Bull squad, has said, “You have to recognize and support what Max is achieving right now. It’s one of a kind. There’s no need for us to take away from that.
“In sports, events like this are extremely rare, so this is a golden moment for him and the team.”
Whether or not Formula One’s governing body, the FIA, should pass legislation to try to stop Red Bull’s dominance has been debated. At the end of 2020, the FIA made a rule change for the 2021 season that favored Mercedes over other teams, setting up a thrilling championship showdown between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes.
However, Wolff argued, “If a team dominates like Max has with Red Bull, then fair dues. The best candidates will rise to the top in this meritocracy.
To the extent that you follow the technical, sporting, and financial rules, we have nothing more to add than congratulations. And if [the process of catching up] takes a long time, then it takes a long time.
When it was us, I remember hearing outraged complaints. The order of things is reversed: entertainment comes after the game. We don’t want to be scripted content like WWE, so please don’t try to imitate them.
