F1 News: Mercedes Blames Regulation Changes Aimed At Them For Losing 2021 Driver Championship

Toto Wolff called out the rule changes that caused Mercedes to lose domination.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has alleged that the rule changes caused Formula 1 to 'break the Mercedes domination'. He also held the new rules responsible for being one of the reasons why Mercedes lost the 2021 Championship.

Red Bull has been experiencing its era of domination since 2021 and the trend seems to be continuing. The team has won all 14 Grand Prix this season while Max Verstappen just broke his record of ten-consecutive wins.

Wolff however believes that the reason for Mercedes' decline, among many, was the modification of the rules in a way that acted against the team's interests. The 2020 season saw Mercedes' best F1 car but in 2021, there was a twist in the story. Wolff offers the real reasons that prevented them from winning the 2021 championship. He told Racefans:

“I think we probably lost the 2021 drivers’ championship for many reasons. One was the final race. 

"But we also lost it because those regulations were set in place in order to reduce the advantage that we had. 2020 was a super-dominant year for us. It was the best car we’ve ever had. And then towards the end of the season they changed the regs by cutting the floor out.

"That was to stop us, and we could see the results in 2021, we were not as competitive as Red Bull was. But in Silverstone we unlocked more of the potential of the car and got ourselves back into the championship. But back in the day, these regs were clearly targeted to re-establish the pecking order."

Wolff does not believe in a tit-for-tat policy. As per him, the rules should not be changed further to end Red Bull's dominance. He does not rule out Red Bull's capabilities and race leader Max Verstappen's 'meritocracy' which have been responsible for their dominance. On the other hand, in all fairness, he expressed that it is now up to the team to "catch up." He revealed:

"As a team principal, I don’t want to jump on the bandwagon that others have done in the past of saying we need to change the regulations because we can’t continue with the dominance of a team. If a team dominates in the way Max has done with Red Bull, then fair dos.

"This is a meritocracy. As long as you comply to the regulations, technical, sporting and financial, we just need to say ‘well done’.

"It’s up to us to catch up. And if that takes a long time, then it takes a long time. I remember people crying foul when it was us. Entertainment follows sport, not the other way around. We can’t be WWE and just scripted content. We don’t want to be scripted content.”