Toto Wolff digs at Christian Horner with ‘trap’ remark amid Red Bull dominance

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says he is keen to avoid falling into the same “trap” as Red Bull counterpart Christian Horner when it comes to their rivals’ current spell of F1 domination.

During Mercedes’ own streak of success between 2014 and 2020, Horner repeatedly called for the FIA to intervene by changing the regulations to reduce the advantage held by the Silver Arrows.

Since the start of new regulations in 2022, Red Bull have romped to back-to-back world championship doubles, with Max Verstappen charging to three consecutive drivers’ world titles.

Having claimed comfortable 1-2 finishes at the opening two rounds this season, Red Bull already appear well on course to rack up more F1 championship trophies in 2024. 

During this period, Mercedes have won just a single grand prix, while Ferrari - who have regularly been Red Bull’s nearest challengers - have only won five times.

But Wolff, whose Mercedes team are facing another challenging start to the campaign, is refusing to resort to the same political tactics that Horner used.

“I don't want to fall in the trap of a fellow team principal from next door in 2014/15 who said we should change the regs because it's too dominant,” Wolff said, in a clear swipe at Horner.

“I think they [Red Bull] have done by far the best job of all the teams over the last two years, and credit where credit is due. I mean, they are literally disappearing in the distance as they want and there's nobody else close.

“It's just that they are in a different league. And our sport is an honest sport. The best performance is being rewarded from car, from machine and man.”

Back in 2015, after one full season of Mercedes dominance, Horner commented: “Mercedes have done a super job. They have a good car, a fantastic engine and they have two very good drivers.

“The problem is that the gap is so big that you end up with three-tier racing. That is not healthy for F1.

“They [the FIA] have a power output so they can see what every power unit is producing. They have the facts. They could quite easily come up with a way of some form of equalisation.”