Toto Wolff insists F1 “is still exciting” despite Max Verstappen’s dominance

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes F1 “is still exciting” despite Red Bull storming to their third 1-2 finish of the season at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Red Bull have won all but two races since the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2022.

Wolff’s own outfit have won just one race since the start of 2022 - and look no closer to winning again this year after a disappointing start.

The Japanese GP was the most action-packed race of the year with plenty of overtakes with high tyre degradation resulting in a mixture of strategies.

Reflecting on the race on Sunday, Wolff thinks F1 is still exciting to watch given the battle behind Red Bull.

“I think I wouldn’t say it like this, because the guys who are ahead are the deserving winner and I believe that we’ve seen the Ferraris more closer to him than some of the previous racers,” Wolff said.

“I think we can be closer to the Ferraris than we’ve shown today. It is still exciting. I don’t know what the race was for you guys to watch, I’m just looking at our cars in split time so I never have a correct picture of what’s actually happening out there.

“But I believe it’s pretty close between P3 and P2 at times and P8.

“In that respect, there will be some action and we just got to push ourselves to provide a better showing and eventually challenge them.”

Wolff is adamant that Max Verstappen is already out of reach despite his DNF in Australia.

“No one is going to catch Max this year,” Wolff added. “His driving and the car is just spectacular. You can see the way he manages the tyres.

“And basically this season now is best of the rest. That’s the fight that’s on.

“Hopefully we can catch up to the McLaren and to the Ferraris and fight for P2,” he added. “This is what it is this year and what it was last year. We had a P2 last year.”