Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff believes Red Bull increased their advantage last weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix, following the introduction of their latest upgrade.
The Austrians introduced a new upgrade at the Hungarian Grand Prix a week prior, which appeared to perform significantly better at Spa-Francorchamps.
Max Verstappen was imperious once again and won comfortably from sixth on the grid, in what was his eighth win in a row and his 10th of 2023.
He boasts a huge 125-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship, whilst Red Bull lead the Constructors’ by 256 points.
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Nobody can currently match the Milton Keynes-based team, making many believe that they are more dominant than Mercedes ever were from 2014 to 2021.
Wolff isn’t prepared to discuss whether Mercedes were more dominant than Red Bull currently are or not, with him simply noting that at least they had two drivers “fighting each other”.
“I don’t know whether our dominance was similar or less as I think we had years where we did it in the same way, but at least we had two cars that were fighting each other,” Wolff said, as reported by Motorsport.com.
“So that caused a little bit of entertainment for everyone, and that’s not the case at the moment.
“It is what it is and I often say that it’s a meritocracy and it’s up to us to fight back. Did we expect that gap? Certainly not. I think with the last step of upgrade, it seems they have another advantage that they that were able to exploit.
“But again, it always gets me back to the point of we have just got to dig in and do the best possible job.”
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With Red Bull having won all 12 races this season, there is a genuine belief that they’ll win every race this year.
Red Bull advisor Dr. Helmut Marko is starting to believe himself that the Austrians could win all 22 races, given that they’ve already won 12.
“If you think logical, then no [because a lot of things can go wrong during a single race weekend]. But we never thought that we could win the first 12 races as well, so why not now I have to say,” Marko said after being asked by Motorsport.com if Red Bull can win every race this year.