Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says Red Bull and Ferrari’s dominance of F1 to blame for lack of entertainment

Toto Wolff has laid the blame for F1’s sterile racing this season at the door of rival teams Red Bull and Ferrari.

The two teams have won all eleven races between them so far this year, and there doesn’t appear to be much jeopardy in the individual or constructors’ standings due to their collective dominance.

Wolff may of course be labelled hypocritical by some, given how Mercedes lorded F1 before this season’s new regulations, winning eight straight constructors’ titles and seven of the last eight drivers’ titles.

Austrian supremo Wolff said: “I think the reason why races have less entertainment is because there’s just too much performance gap between the teams.

“If you have [Red Bull’s Max] Verstappen disappearing into the distance, the two Ferraris being the only entertainment during the race and then we are in the middle of nowhere in no man’s land.

“Then the others are further behind, and then you have DRS trains.

“That never can make a good sprint race.”

Wolff’s erstwhile sparring partner, Red Bull chief Christian Horner, however thinks that Mercedes have made a jump in their performance of late and can even challenge for the top step at this weekend’s French GP at the Circuit Paul Ricard.

“We’ll expect them [Mercedes] to be quick in Ricard,” Horner said.

“They are showing flashes of being there or thereabouts.

“The last two races have been pretty decent for them and there’s been no sign I think of any porpoising at all, so they seem to be slowly bringing themselves back into the game.

“I think they will be a contender. They keep consistently scoring points.

“I’m not sure how far off they are in the constructors’ or drivers’ [championships] at the moment but sometimes having more cars in play is a good thing, sometimes it might be a bad thing.

“But I think for the fans it’s great to have six cars competing for victories.”