Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has discredited Max Verstappen's record feat of securing ten consecutive Formula 1 wins, highlighting the absence of internal competition at Red Bull.
Wolff played down the achievement, labelling the record as 'unimportant' and insisting that such stats are for Wikipedia, which according to the Austrian 'nobody reads anyway'.
Wolff, who has overseen Mercedes' eight consecutive constructors' championships, argued that Lewis Hamilton only ever achieved seven consecutive race wins because their drivers were always competitive against each other.
“Our situation was a little bit different," said Wolff to Sky Sports. "Because we had two guys fighting against each other within the team."
Wolff further brushed off the Dutchman's achievement, adding: “I don’t know if he cares about the records. It is not something that would be important for me, those numbers, it is for Wikipedia and nobody reads that anyway.”
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Regarding his own team's performance, Wolff admitted that Mercedes had a challenging race day after George Russell finished P5 and Hamilton crossed the line in fifth
"Lots of incidents, but you need to be careful not to be too happy about a fifth and a sixth," said the Austrian. "I think we maximised what was in there today. I think both penalties you can justify so we are going to look at that and how we can prevent it in the future.”
Mercedes currently hold a 45-point lead over rivals Ferrari and will be looking to extend that gap over the coming races in order to secure second place in the F1 standings.
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