F1 News: Mercedes boss Toto Wolff vows to avoid falling into the same 'trap' as Red Bull's Christian Horner

Toto Wolff and Christian Horner at F1 Testing — Photo: © IMAGO

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Wolff vows to avoid falling into the same 'trap' as Horner

The Austrian has been speaking about Red Bull's dominance and the possibility of regulation changes to curtial it.

Originally written by Sam Cook. This version is a translation.

Friday 22 March 2024 18:00

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has vowed that he'll avoid falling into the same 'trap' as Christian Horner when the Red Bull boss was quizzed on dominance in F1.

Since new regulations were introduced in 2022, Red Bull have emerged as the dominant team on the grid, winning the constructor's title for the past two seasons. Mercedes, by contrast, have won just one race since Lewis Hamilton's Jeddah triumph in December 2021.

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Their 2024 has got off to a poor start once again, with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell seemingly not able to put up a serious fight for the podium positions in both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Red Bull, meanwhile, have continued their dominance over the rest of the teams on the Formula 1 grid, with Max Verstappen now having won 19 of the last 20 races stretching back into 2023.

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Seven-time world champion Hamilton is without a win since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, and has had to watch Verstappen and Red Bull run away with several championships since then.

Now, Wolff has batted away a question about asking F1 to change regulations to stop one team from dominating quite so much, citing his own team's period of dominance between 2014-2021.

“I don't want to fall in the trap of a fellow team principal from next door in 2014/15 who said we should change the regs because it's too dominant,” Wolff told media, speaking about Horner.

“I think they [Red Bull] have done by far the best job of all the teams over the last two years, and credit where credit is due. I mean, they are literally disappearing in the distance as they want and there's nobody else close.

“It's just that they are in a different league. And our sport is an honest sport. The best performance is being rewarded from car, from machine and man.”

Red Bull Lewis Hamilton Mercedes F1 Christian Horner Toto Wolff