Toto Wolff blames Formula 1 regulations for 'RUBBISH' cars

Toto Wolff

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Wolff blames F1 regulations for 'RUBBISH' cars

Toto Wolff admits he dislikes the current technical regulations following another frustrating weekend in Baku.

Dan McCarthy

Tuesday 2 May 2023 21:42

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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has launched a scathing criticism of modern F1 cars, describing the ground effect setup as 'rubbish'.

Wolff has been very vocal since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, saying the race was 'boring' following Sergio Perez's victory.

New regulations were introduced at the beginning of 2022 in order to provide a more exciting spectacle for fans.

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However, the opposite has happened with Red Bull dominating 2022 and this year so far. Defending champion Max Verstappen and Perez have shared four wins between them in 2023.

The Austrian did not mince his words when speaking about the new type of F1 car, saying: "Generally ground-effect cars are rubbish cars, it is just who has the least rubbish is ahead."

Wolff stops short of demanding new regulations

As part of the sport's drive to create more on-track drama, the technical regulations were altered ahead of the 2022 season, giving teams a whole new challenge to look forward to.

One key change was to make cars flatter and wider with ground effect becoming a key phenomenon in the sport. Essentially, cars use underbody tunnels to create extra downforce so that they can follow cars in front more closely.

Those changes led to big problems with 'porpoising' where the car bounced as it was driving at high speeds - something that particularly affected Mercedes.

Red Bull seemed to be the only team who properly cracked the new regulations last year and Max Verstappen won the title in record-breaking fashion, amassing 15 race wins en route to a dominant title win.

Wolff is no fan of the technical specifications but insists he wants to try and beat Red Bull with the current rules in place rather than have more sweeping changes imposed.

"You can see their car is barely moving, be it on straights or over bumps," Wolff said of the Red Bull. "Corner-through balance looks easy.

"We either have to do a better job all of us together to catch them or change the regulations, and I don't think we should be doing the second one. We just need to win on merit and that means being more clever than Red Bull."