Toto Wolff says Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix was “boring” and Components 1 wants take a look at what to do about it.
“It was not a thriller,” the Mercedes group principal stated. “No overtaking, even with an enormous tempo distinction, made it not nice leisure.
“Even if you’re inside 0.2secs, it’s practically not possible to overhaul except the opposite driver makes a mistake.”
Nevertheless, Wolff stopped wanting saying the brand new guidelines launched in 2022 had been at fault.
“After a race weekend like this, we mustn’t discuss it down general and say it’s the mistaken route and we have to change fully,” he stated.
“It’s extra about asking why wasn’t it entertaining, and revisit it.
“We have to take a look at how we will keep away from a boring race.”
Was the brand new dash format in charge?
The occasion in Baku was the primary run to a revised ‘dash’ format.
It launched a second qualifying session that determined the grid for the dash – a shorter race on Saturday – which has been separated out solely from the primary grand prix. Beforehand, the results of the dash determined the grid for the primary race.
The dash format has met with a blended response. Pink Bull’s Max Verstappen stated he felt the whole idea “should be scrapped”, whereas different drivers stated they preferred the brand new construction for the weekend, even when they needed it to be restricted to only a handful of occasions a 12 months.
Wolff identified that the one motion near the entrance was a collision between Verstappen and Mercedes’ George Russell that ended with the drivers having a verbal altercation within the pit lane.
Wolff stated: “Now we have to analyse the weekend with the dash format whether or not there are positives that we will take out, however ultimately all of it comes right down to racing.
“It wants the powerful battles and the spotlight [on Saturday] was George and Max with the ability to battle it out and [in the grand prix] there was none of that,” Wolff stated.
Are the brand new guidelines an element?
Wolff’s feedback come at a time when F1 groups and drivers are saying that overtaking has change into harder.
Final season, F1 launched guidelines geared toward closing up the sector and making overtaking simpler.
Whereas it’s nonetheless simpler to comply with than it was earlier than the rule change, drivers have stated that it’s harder this 12 months because of the groups creating their automobiles.
And whereas drivers have reported that the brand new guidelines have made it simpler to comply with than earlier than 2022, this has been counter-balanced by a discount of the slipstream impact behind one other automobile.
And much from the racing changing into extra aggressive, the game finds itself in a state of affairs the place one group is dominating.
Verstappen set a brand new file for wins in a single season in 2022, whereas Pink Bull have gained all 4 races thus far this season and are on the right track to monopolise the championship.
Wolff stated: “You may have two automobiles crusing off into the sundown on advantage and there’s a 20-second hole, and I would not know between Aston Martin and Ferrari and us who was faster since you are caught the place you might be caught and that’s just about it.”
A part of the philosophy of permitting automobiles to run nearer collectively was basically altering the way in which the automobiles generate their efficiency. F1 adopted a phenomenon generally known as ‘floor impact’, which makes use of underbody tunnels to create downforce.
This design requires a automobile to be run very flat and stiff for optimum efficiency.
Pink Bull appear to have stolen a march on their rivals with a way more efficient manner of controlling what is named the ‘platform’ of the automobile, decreasing its motion on axes entrance to again and aspect to aspect and subsequently permitting it to create extra constant downforce.
Wolff stated that Mercedes’ lack of efficiency was “extra about experience management than sheer downforce”.
“You’ll be able to see their automobile is barely shifting, be it on straights or over bumps,” Wolff stated of the Pink Bull. “Nook-through stability seems to be straightforward. You take a look at all the opposite onboards and the automobiles are tough. Typically ground-effect automobiles are garbage automobiles, it’s simply who has the least garbage is forward.”
Nevertheless, he stated it was the duty of the opposite groups to meet up with Pink Bull.
“We see a sample,” Wolff stated. “There are two Pink Bulls, after which there are six automobiles, and a great distance off is the third division. That has been the sample the primary 4 races and we’ve to shake that up one way or the other.
“They had been 20 seconds forward of [Ferrari’s Charles] Leclerc after 40 racing laps, so it’s half a second a lap. Not less than we’ve seen they had been pushing so that’s the actual tempo. Half a second is kind of a protracted option to go.
“We both need to do a greater job all of us collectively to catch them or change the laws, and I do not suppose we needs to be doing the second. We simply must win on advantage and meaning being extra intelligent than Pink Bull.”
