Last Updated on December 3 2023, 10:30 am

The fantasy season is now upon Formula One lovers as the”iffs”, “whats” and “maybes” can now be debated while the sport goes into apparent hibernation. The longest standing team principal is retiring from the sport and Franz Tost is enjoying the last moments of being in the spotlight is the European media focus on gleaning some final grains of wisdom.

When asked who would be his ‘fantasy’ duo of team mates, the Austrian was quick to reply naming, “Vettel and Max – because of their dedication to the sport and their speed.

Tost ‘fantasy’ duo

“They know how to win races and they also bring all the factors with them, what you need to win races.”

Tost goes on to outline the utter dedication and skill of both drivers who know how to extract the absolute maximum from the car they have been given to drive.

“Look at Max, he is driving this e-car series and all this kind of stuff. Isn’t this fantastic? A three-time Formula 1 World Champion and at home he is racing against others on the computer,” commented an impressive Tost.

Interestingly both these two Red Bull world champions have something in common, which is they swiftly adapt their driving style to maximise the car underneath them. Vettel used to nail qualifying and then use the superior downforce of his Red Bull cars to ask out a lead in ‘clean air’ while the rest of the field battled amongst themselves and then cruise home to victory.

Hamilton doubles down criticising his Mercedes team

Making the F1 car work at its best

His Red Bull cars were not the best at overtaking or driving in traffic, so Vettel found a way to ensure he made the best of what he had to maximise his chances of a win.

Much has been written about the all conquering RB19 but it had its weakness, one of which was qualifying. Verstappen only claimed 12 pole positions this year, but he knew in the race if managed correctly his tyres would last longer than the rest of the field and this would give him the competitive advantage he required.

Of course in the sister car Sergio Perez had nothing like the success of his team mate and this was clearly down to Max understanding how to make the best of his equipment and seeking out every last ounce of performance.

Formula One has very much become about making the tyres work to your advance since Pirelli become the sport’s sole supplier. Much of the jeopardy of mechanical failures and driver error has been eliminated in the past 20 years and so the FIA know that flat out racing from lights out to chequered flag may not be very exciting to watch.

Questions emerge over Allison’s capabilities to turn Mercedes around

Reliability almost the bane of F1

To this end Pirelli have been briefed each year to make tyres which degrade and cannot be pushed flat out from the moment they are fitted to the car. This creates the need for different strategies amongst the teams and the subsequent tyre offsets provide for overtaking and a challenger the driver to understand how best to run his race.

Many argue this is artificial racing and it would be better to return to drivers pushing hard from the beginning to the end of the Grand Prix. However, a quick look at the power unit failure rate this season quickly reveals just four drivers exceeded their allowance of ICE and Turbo’s resulting in less jumbled up grids for the start of the race.

Reliability has almost become the bane of Formula One. Back in the day, Ferrari for example would go on a glory hunt in Monza, slip in a qualifying engine which was super fast but was broken after 25 miles – then run their engine at full chat in the Grand Prix knowing they could just fit another for the following event.

Of course this often led to a bonfires of the Ferraris as ambition exceeded their technological capabilities they had utilised during the race. But theses days are gone. Teams target the bigger picture of the season as a whole which is why we saw such a tense battle for second between Mercedes and Ferrari in Abu Dhabi.

Marko pitches for a new role with Red Bull

Wolff calls for “flat out” races

However, Toto Wolff in his reflections of 2023 has now called for more “flat out races” like at the Qatar Grand Prix. There the FIA had overseen the insertion of pyramid kerbs which through the high speed corners were damaging the integrity of the Pirelli rubber.

The consequence was the track was slightly reconfigured for the Grand Prix and the drivers limited to just 18 laps on each set of tyres they used. Each then admitted they had driven their cars flat out knowing there would be no drop off in performance as happens when there stints are much longer.

Wolff believes too much emphasis is on how the tyres will perform:“It’s all about thermal management. So, I’d like to have races like Qatar where you just go flat out.”

Yet F1 has trodden this path in days of yore in particular when Michael Schumacher and Ferrari were dominant. Lap after lap the cars held station pushing flat out with the commentators struggling to get excited about the gap between them being and flowing by 0,2 seconds.

Did Williams bottle their big decision?

Pirelli tyres built for a purpose

Pirelli boss Mario Isola also believes creating a tyre too durable would be a problem. If drivers push flat out the entire race, they will end up with similar pit stop strategies which leads to little variation and fewer overtakes.

“We need to take the right time to discuss it properly, involving the teams and their strategists, because when you change, for example, the level of degradation, the risk is that we have all the races on one stop, all the teams doing the same strategy,” cautioned Isola.

The 2023 Qatar Grand Prix “flat out” stints created a controversial topic as well, as the drivers Gell ill during the Grand Prix from extreme exhaustion. Of course much of this was due to the temperature in the desert, but even so the demands oaths group of highly fit athletes was on the edge given the modern F1 car is a beast to drive.

Most forms of motorsport see the competitors ‘managing’ the tyres and even in the Le Mans 24, teams calculate how much time they can save if they make the tyres work for an extra driver stint.

Flat out racing from lights out to chequered flag is not going to make a comeback in F1 and to a certain degree Toto Wolff shows his naivety even suggesting it is a possibility.

The Judge

+ posts

With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.

Fascinating as to when Ferrari built these engines to self-destruct because their capabilities were so “poor”.

Considering they left endurance racing in 1973 with the most wins at that time, ie 9, and they have 16 constructor titles to their name throughout the decades – I’d say the author is somewhat unjust in this remark.

I remember Renaults exploding frequently, BMW engines going up in flames. Cosworth had frequent retirements and so did Peugeot, Alfa, Honda, Toyota – in fact any engine manufacturer at the time as they pushed the limits with technology that wasn’t 21st century. Don’t forget that bastion of Porsche which in 1991 was so heavy and unreliable they haven’t returned since.

Christ, even the mighty Mercedes when they first joined F1 back in the 90’s had repeated engine failures yet the press release afterwards would speak of hydraulic failures, electronic faults despite leaving a trail of oil and innards across the track.

As to the other b/s about flat-out racing – it’s rare at any stage of Grand Prix racing since it’s inception over a century ago. There have always been too many variables with the cars to allow it. But the Netflix generation needs to be voraciously entertained!!

It’s easy to say that Pirelli has been tasked the unenviable task of manufacturing degrading tyres as per the FIA instructions but drivers have always driven with an eye on reliability, tyre use and fragility of cars. Lotus were famous for pushing the cars to the absolute limit of breaking down and failed significantly more than other manufacturers. You think Jim Clark drove flat-out all race?

What many suggest is Fangio’s greatest race, the 1957 German GP was only driven flat-out after his pit-stop went disastrously wrong and he had minimal time to catch the cars in front. In more recent (!) times, watch the 1987 British GP when Mansell pitted to replace a puncture and then drove flat-out to catch and pass his team-mate because he had nothing to lose.

Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda epitomised the skills of winning at the slowest speed to protect their cars.

I’d suggest these modern cars are capable of racing flat-out because reliability and safety have improved so much.

In my memory, the only time F1 was ever truly flat-out was the refueling era when there was a tyre war between Bridgestone and Michelin.

Finally, as to Vettel, he proved over his career that he needed a specific trait from his cars to be able to function at the front. For all his skill of driving exhaust blown Red Bulls to titles, he failed miserably once that technology was banned.

1 thought on “Toto Wolff’s F1 naivety is embarrassing”

Carlo Carluccio

December 3, 2023 at 11:36

Fascinating as to when Ferrari built these engines to self-destruct because their capabilities were so “poor”.

Considering they left endurance racing in 1973 with the most wins at that time, ie 9, and they have 16 constructor titles to their name throughout the decades – I’d say the author is somewhat unjust in this remark.

I remember Renaults exploding frequently, BMW engines going up in flames. Cosworth had frequent retirements and so did Peugeot, Alfa, Honda, Toyota – in fact any engine manufacturer at the time as they pushed the limits with technology that wasn’t 21st century. Don’t forget that bastion of Porsche which in 1991 was so heavy and unreliable they haven’t returned since.

Christ, even the mighty Mercedes when they first joined F1 back in the 90’s had repeated engine failures yet the press release afterwards would speak of hydraulic failures, electronic faults despite leaving a trail of oil and innards across the track.

As to the other b/s about flat-out racing – it’s rare at any stage of Grand Prix racing since it’s inception over a century ago. There have always been too many variables with the cars to allow it. But the Netflix generation needs to be voraciously entertained!!

It’s easy to say that Pirelli has been tasked the unenviable task of manufacturing degrading tyres as per the FIA instructions but drivers have always driven with an eye on reliability, tyre use and fragility of cars. Lotus were famous for pushing the cars to the absolute limit of breaking down and failed significantly more than other manufacturers. You think Jim Clark drove flat-out all race?

What many suggest is Fangio’s greatest race, the 1957 German GP was only driven flat-out after his pit-stop went disastrously wrong and he had minimal time to catch the cars in front. In more recent (!) times, watch the 1987 British GP when Mansell pitted to replace a puncture and then drove flat-out to catch and pass his team-mate because he had nothing to lose.

Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda epitomised the skills of winning at the slowest speed to protect their cars.

I’d suggest these modern cars are capable of racing flat-out because reliability and safety have improved so much.

In my memory, the only time F1 was ever truly flat-out was the refueling era when there was a tyre war between Bridgestone and Michelin.

Finally, as to Vettel, he proved over his career that he needed a specific trait from his cars to be able to function at the front. For all his skill of driving exhaust blown Red Bulls to titles, he failed miserably once that technology was banned.