Mercedes finds itself among the contenders aiming to catch up with the formidable Red Bull team.
Toto Wolff, the principal of the Mercedes team, emphasized his desire to steer clear of the same “trap” that his counterpart Christian Horner might have fallen into after yet another dominant performance by Red Bull.
Max Verstappen led Sergio Perez to secure a second one-two finish of the season at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, further cementing Red Bull’s strong early lead in both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships.
This outcome underscores Red Bull’s near-total dominance, with the team clinching victory in nearly every race since the São Paulo Grand Prix in 2022.
Red Bull’s impressive run comes on the heels of Mercedes’ period of dominance before the regulatory changes in 2022. Wolff remarked, “I don’t want to fall in the trap of my fellow team principal from next door in 2014 or ’15… he said we should change the regs because it’s too dominant.”
He acknowledged Red Bull’s exceptional performance over the past two years, stating, “I think they’ve 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.”
Wolff also noted the competitive challenges posed by other teams, saying, “They had Ferrari today, Leclerc a little bit and if Sainz would have been here, they would have been second best on the road. But there is not this huge performance differential between everybody that follows up and down.”
He concluded, “Depending on the track, it’s just that they are in a different league.”
