MONZA, Italy — Mercedes staff principal Toto Wolff has labelled Max Verstappen’s file of ten consecutive wins “irrelevant”, saying it’s merely a quantity for a Wikipedia statistics web page.
After tying Sebastian Vettel’s file of 9 consecutive wins on the Dutch Grand Prix, Verstappen moved into uncharted territory along with his tenth win in a row at Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.
Verstappen’s run of dominance comes throughout a season during which Purple Bull has gained each race and is at the moment on a run of 24 wins from 25 grands prix, courting again to the center of 2022.
“Our scenario was perhaps a little bit bit completely different as a result of we had two drivers preventing in opposition to one another inside the staff,” Wolff instructed Sky Sports activities when requested about Verstappen’s file after the Italian Grand Prix.
“I do not know whether or not he cares in regards to the file — it is not one thing that will be essential for me, any of these numbers.
“It is for Wikipedia and no one reads that anyway.”
There have been occasions when Mercedes loved related ranges of dominance in F1 between 2014 and 2020, however probably the most consecutive wins by considered one of its drivers topped out at seven for Nico Rosberg throughout the top of the 2015 season and the beginning of 2016.
Lewis Hamilton, who holds the file for probably the most total race wins with 103 and is tied with Michael Schumacher for probably the most titles on seven, managed 5 in a row on two events — as soon as in 2014 when Rosberg put an finish to his streak on the Brazilian Grand Prix whereas the pair had been preventing for the title and as soon as in 2020 when his run was ended by lacking a race with COVID-19.
Talking in a separate media session later within the night, Wolff mentioned he didn’t know the file existed earlier than he was requested about it.
“We simply talked about it, for me a lot of these file are fully irrelevant,” he added. “They had been irrelevant in our good days in Mercedes, I do not know what number of races we gained in a row and I did not even know that there was a rely for what number of races in a row you win.
“Due to this fact, asking me to touch upon some achievement is tough as a result of it by no means performed a job in my complete life. The outcome itself exhibits that an important driver in an important automotive is competing on a particularly excessive stage.”
Nonetheless, Wolff mentioned he could be impressed if Purple Bull is ready to go unbeaten for a complete season — a feat no staff has been capable of obtain in F1 historical past.
McLaren got here closest in 1988 with 15 wins from 16, whereas Mercedes secured 19 from 21 in 2016.
Requested if there have been any races left