26/09/2013
NEWS STORY
Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff admits that whilst Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel are doing the best job, such domination of the sport isn't exciting.
The Austrian, whose team now finds itself running third to Ferrari, but appears to be safe in terms of the threat from Lotus, is hoping that the new rules in 2014 will bring about a change in the order... but wouldn't put money on it.
"For my own well-being on a Sunday evening a different winner would definitely cheer us up more," says the Austrian, who no doubt wouldn't say no if his Silver Arrows were to finish 1-2 a few times.
"We've had those years of dominance of certain drivers and teams," he continued. "People said it was boring when Michael (Schumacher) was winning all the time, now people say the same with Sebastian. This is the downside of success.
"Is it bad for the sport? Certainly if one team and one driver is dominant for a long time, that is not the most exciting thing. But the reason why I love this sport so much is because you can't cheat yourself, there is a stopwatch. At the moment they are doing the best job, and this is what the stopwatch says.
"The performance is being driven by people, and with people staying where they are in the top teams, I don't see there will be a big swing in the balance of power," he admitted, looking ahead to 2014. "Obviously it could be a bit more of an engine formula next year, but if you look at the structure Ferrari has in Maranello and Renault in Viry, they are equally motivated. So I don't see huge differences."
Looking ahead to the remainder of this season, he concluded: "We have made a step forward and it looks like we are okay for third, but we are still very motivated to be second best."
The talk in the Singapore paddock however was that all is not well within the team with Wolff said to be on "very thin ice".