Wolff: F1 Must Not Rewrite Rules after Red Bull Domination

Toto Wolff believes that Formula 1 needs to understand why Red Bull ‘sailed off into the sunset on merit’ following an Azerbaijan Grand Prix which featured little overtaking.

After losing out in the Safety Car period, Lewis Hamilton recovered to sixth place – which included an overtake on teammate George Russell not long after the race resumed.

In a race that featured little overtaking in the second half, Hamilton’s race progressed no further, and the Briton was unable to mount a challenge to Carlos Sainz’s fifth place.

The second Mercedes was at the back of the ‘top four’ teams, and resorted to pitting for Softs in the final laps to set the fastest lap of the race.

Speaking after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Wolff called for an understanding into the lack of action after his Mercedes drivers became ‘stuck’ in position.

“I think after a race weekend like this, we mustn’t talk it down overall and say, ‘that is the wrong direction and we need to change completely’,” Wolff told media, including RacingNews365.com.

“It is more about understanding why it wasn’t entertaining and revisit it, and you have two cars that are sailing off into the sunset on merit, then there’s a 22-second gap.”

“I wouldn’t know today between Aston Martin, Ferrari and us who is quicker, because you’re stuck where you’re stuck, and then that’s pretty much it.”

“Between Leclerc, Alonso, the Aston Martins, the Ferraris, and the Mercedes, they were probably all the same in free air.”

“It doesn’t change the overall thing, that there are the two Red Bulls, then it’s three teams, and then the rest follows.”

Wolff blames early parc ferme for setup issues

A revised Sprint Grand Prix weekend format was trialled in Baku, which featured a dedicated Sprint Shootout qualifying and race, independent from the main Grand Prix.

As a result, the rules were tweaked to put cars into parc ferme conditions after FP1 on Friday morning, and Wolff was asked how far away from an optimal setup the Mercedes cars were.

“Very far away,” responded Wolff.

“I think we headed in a very sub-optimum setup decision. In FP1 we realised it was too late and the car went into parc ferme.

“It’s the same for everybody. Everybody’s rolling the dice, and then whoever got it right, got it right.”