No team is likely to ever match Mercedes’ run of eight consecutive titles in Formula 1 again, Toto Wolff has claimed.
The Brackley-based team enjoyed their record-breaking streak of Constructors’ Championship success from 2014, at the start of the V6 hybrid era, until 2021 before Red Bull dethroned them last year.
Already, Red Bull looks likely to extend that run this year thanks to their incredible RB19, with Max Verstappen a clear favourite for a third straight Drivers’ crown.
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But Wolff thinks there’s a simple reason why their period of domination won’t last as long as Mercedes’ did.
“The landscape has changed,” he said via PlanetF1. “I don’t think that anybody will run away with eight championships in a row going forward. This is the way the regulations have been designed.
“We know who our competitors are today and there will be others tomorrow and after tomorrow because of the cost cap limits that have been set. This is what the sport should be, not one team, not three, but maybe five [fighting for the title].”
Already, Wolff’s argument has some merit as Aston Martin has emerged from the midfield to join the long-time big three at the front of the grid.
Another team desperate to follow suit is McLaren, where CEO Zak Brown believes the F1 grid could mimic its American counterpart very soon.
“I think what we’re going to start seeing is it’s going to be like IndyCar levels of competitiveness where one weekend you might be P7 and the next weekend you’re P17 and you’re not actually really much slower,” he told RACER.
“I think that’s what’s exciting, is Formula 1’s going to get to the point where maybe there’s four or five different teams that can win and the spread will be ‘one weekend they’re at the front, then the next weekend another team’s at the front’, but everyone just needs to catch Red Bull at this point.”
