Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff believes the only way Red Bull don’t win every race this season is if the Austrians “screw it up themselves”, something which is yet to happen in 2023.
The Milton Keynes-based team claimed yet another 1-2 finish on Sunday at the Italian Grand Prix, to extend their winning streak to 15 races, dating back to the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Mercedes were the last team to defeat Red Bull, back at the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix where George Russell claimed his maiden victory.
Red Bull are undefeated in 2023 and lead the Constructors’ Championship by a ridiculous 310 points, thanks to the side having averaged 41.6 points per Grand Prix this season.
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If that wasn’t enough, reigning World Champion Max Verstappen has finished no lower than second all year, with him having claimed 12 wins just in 2023 alone.
10 of those victories have come consecutively, something which saw him eclipse Sebastian Vettel’s record for nine wins in a row on Sunday at the Italian Grand Prix.
With there still being eight races remaining, Verstappen could extend his winning streak to 18 races by the end of the season and claim 20 wins in total from the campaign.
This would cement not only his place in the history books, but Red Bull’s as well for the most dominant campaign in the history of the sport.
That record is currently held by McLaren, who won 94% of the races in 1988.
Given how superior they’ve been, Wolff thinks only Red Bull can stop themselves from claiming every win this season.
“I think they need to screw it up themselves in order not to win every race this season,” Wolff told media, including RacingNews365.
Wolff has been very critical of Red Bull’s and Verstappen’s dominance because of how little competition they’ve had, although he admits that if the Austrians can win every race this season, then that’s a “good” record to have.
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The Mercedes boss also insisted that Mercedes would’ve achieved perfection in 2016, had it not been for two separate incidents.
“That by the way, is a record I would think is a good one [to have],” said Wolff.
“We didn’t make it because we pushed each other out in Barcelona and then we had an engine failure in Malaysia in 2016 [for Hamilton while he was leading].”