Toto Wolff Makes Dystopian Guarantee That There Will Never Be Another Mercedes: “The Landscape Has Changed”

Is it hard to dominate a sport? While the answers can be subjective, F1 has seen its fair share of runaway dominations. Be it the McLaren-Honda combination in the late 80s or Ferrari asserting its mark in the 2000s. Though one of the architects behind the latest dominating team of F1 – Mercedes, says that these days are behind us now.

Mercedes were arguably the king of F1 for 8 consecutive years, winning consecutive championships. But with the 2022 technical and financial regulations, Toto Wolff thinks that no one can replicate their success.

As per the Race, Toto said, “Not one team, not three but maybe five. The [F1] landscape has changed – I don’t think anybody will run away with eight championships in a row going forward and this is the way the [technical and financial] regulations have been designed.”

Wolff feels the aero-testing restrictions will hurt Red Bull. The Milton Keynes outfit was given an aero-testing time reduction penalty for their 2021 season cost-cap breach.

He added, “How the ATR regulations have been set in place allows teams that are further back to really make a big jump compared to the frontrunners.” As per Toto, Red Bull may have 24% less wind tunnel time as per the ATR regulations and their cost-cap penalty.

Wolff’s theory suggests that these ATR regulations will allow for closer championships in the future. As teams behind have more advantages of these aero-testing restrictions.

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The impact of these regulations will be evident in the coming years. If more teams can climb up the field to challenge for the championship, it’s great for the sport.

Red Bull to replicate what Mercedes did from 2014 – 2021? – Or will a new order emerge?

It’s been either Mercedes or Red Bull who won the championships in the last 14 years. The last different team to win was Ferrari in 2008 (as Brawn won in 2009 and later became Mercedes). Red Bull took their first constructors’ title this year since 2013.

The major question is will the latest technical regulations, the financial budget cap regulations, and the aero-testing sliding scale help the teams behind gain an advantage? Everyone hopes for this utopia, nonetheless.

Realistically, Ferrari is probably the best-placed team to bet on, to break this trend of Red Bull or Mercedes being champions. The Scuderia have developed well in performance in the last 2 seasons. They will be hoping to make their title fight stronger in 2023.

Besides them, Alpine has been promising a lot lately with a prospect of moving up from the midfield. And they have a similar cousin team at Woking, promising the same in McLaren. They expected to reach the front of the field with the 2022 ground-effect regulations, but to no avail.

Aston Martin who returned to F1 last season is showing steady signs of development. The significant investments of owner Lawrence Stroll are the major foundation on which Aston hopes to jump up the field in the next few seasons.

Watch This Story: The drama behind Ferrari-Mercedes budget cap battle against Red Bull

With less than 3 months remaining for the 2023 season, all these teams will search for gaining that extra tenth to grow closer to winning more. Our realistic bets for next season’s top order will be on a 3-way fight for the title. You may guess the teams.