Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has warned F1 teams they must "do a better job" in order to end Red Bull's dominant start to the sport's new technical era or else face another change in the regulations. But the Austrian, who spearheaded Mercedes' own monopolisation over Formula 1 with eight Constructors' titles between 2014 and 2021, has insisted he would not wish to pursue any tweaks to the technical regulations. Sergio Perez led Max Verstappen home for Red Bull's third one-two finish in the opening four races this campaign, with pole-sitter Charles Leclerc powerless to resist the pace of his rivals, eventually finishing 20 seconds behind in third. The form has continued from the first year of the new era of F1 in which Red Bull finished 205 points ahead of Ferrari, whilst Verstappen defeated Leclerc by 146 points. The pecking order of the chasing pack has fluctuated since the season-opener in Bahrain, with Aston Martin, Ferrari and Mercedes aiming to become established as second-best in order to fully focus on closing the gap to the front.
Win on merit
Asked if he believed the sport would see a convergence within the current aerodynamic era akin to the previous era, which saw Red Bull and Mercedes locked in battle in 2021, Wolff told media including RacingNews365.com : "There is always the risk if you look at these cycles that if a team is so far ahead... they [Red Bull] were about 20 seconds ahead of Leclerc in 40 racing laps, that is half a second per lap. "At least we have seen that they were pushing, so that is the real pace. But half a second is quite a long way to go. "So we either have to do a better job – all of us together to catch them up – or change the regulations and I don't think we should be doing the second one, I think we just need to win on merit and winning on merit means being more clever and having a steeper development slope than Red Bull."
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