Race winner Max Verstappen (NLD) Red Bull Racing celebrates in parc ferme. 03.09.2023. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 15, Italian Grand Prix, Monza, Italy, Race Day.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has downplayed Max Verstappen’s record-breaking 10th consecutive Formula 1 victory, stating it’s “for Wikipedia and nobody reads that”.
Verstappen overhauled the Ferrari threat at Monza to triumph for the 10th race straight, setting a new benchmark for the most wins in a row by a single driver in F1 history.
While the Dutchman has continued to reign supreme at the top this season, Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez has regularly languished far behind, only accruing five podiums during Verstappen’s record run.
Ahead of the weekend, Wolff speculated that Verstappen’s ability to inflict huge defeats on his team-mates perhaps suggested Red Bull tailored its cars to his driving style – a notion that the Red Bull camp vehemently denied.
Speaking after Verstappen etched his name further into the F1 record books, Wolff downplayed the achievement, explaining that no Mercedes driver was able to string together such a run previously because there was always internal competition.
“Our situation was maybe a little bit different because we had two drivers fighting against each other within the team,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1.
“I don’t know whether he cares about the record, it’s not something that would be important for me, any of those numbers. It’s for Wikipedia and nobody reads that anyway.”
When asked later how difficult it was to manage such a feat, Wolff added: “We just talked about it, for me these types of record are completely irrelevant. They were irrelevant in our good days in Mercedes, I don’t know how many races we won in a row and I didn’t even know that there was a count for how many races in a row you win.
“Therefore, asking me on commenting on some achievement is difficult because it never played a role in my whole life. The result itself shows that a great driver in a great car are competing on an extremely high level.”
Red Bull have won 23 of the past 24 races to be held and are also bidding to become the only side in F1 history to claim victory in every race of a single campaign.
Pressed on if he suspected the reigning World Champions would be vulnerable at any of the remaining tracks, Wolff declared: “No, I think they need to screw it up themselves.
“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.”
George Russell (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 W14 runs wide. 03.09.2023. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 15, Italian Grand Prix, Monza, Italy, Race Day.
While Red Bull recorded its first 1-2 finish at the Italian GP, Mercedes was made to settle for George Russell and Lewis Hamilton coming home fifth and sixth respectively.
The German marque had anticipated the low downforce Monza circuit hampering its competitiveness, with Hamilton struggling to a lacklustre eighth in qualifying.
However, Wolff believes both drivers extracted the maximum in Sunday’s race, despite the newly contracted Mercedes pairing picking up five-second time penalties.
Hamilton was penalised for contact with Oscar Piastri at the second chicane, while Russell was handed a penalty for overtaking Esteban Ocon outside of the track at Turn 1.
“That was a pretty incident-filled race for us and we maximised the points that were in there today,” he reflected. “But like always, we need to be careful not to be too happy about finishing fifth and sixth.
“Looking back at them, I think both penalties for the drivers were fair, but fortunately they both did a great job to make sure they didn’t have any consequence for the finishing positions; they both just took it on the chin, got their heads down and kept on racing.
“We know that these low-downforce circuits are not our strong suit, and in fact I think we have seen progress over the season from Baku to Spa to here.
“The next race is Singapore, so back to high downforce and coming towards our direction a little it more. It will be important for us to maximise that opportunity when it comes”
Keyword: Wolff downplays Verstappen’s ‘Wikipedia’ F1 win record