Verstappen took his 10th consecutive grand prix victory last time out at Monza to surpass the record of nine wins jointly held by his Red Bull predecessor Sebastian Vettel and Alberto Ascari.
Red Bull also made history, beating Mercedes and becoming the first team to achieve 15 wins in a row.
But Mercedes Motorsport boss Wolff played down his rival’s achievements in Italy, telling Sky Sports F1: “Our situation was a bit different because we had two guys.” [Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg] fighting each other within the team.
“I do not know if [Verstappen] cares about records. It’s not something that’s important to me, those numbers.
“It’s for Wikipedia and no one reads it anyway.”
Wolff has now admitted that perhaps he was wrong to be so forceful, but he was channeling the mentality of former Mercedes GP non-executive chairman and triple F1 champion, the late Niki Lauda.
The Austrian said, upon reflection, that his comments on Wikipedia “maybe not” were the smartest thing he could say, and were more representative of his lack of sentimentality about numbers.
“Well, obviously, when you look at the comments, given the circumstances, you might think, ‘Was that the smartest thing I could have said?’ and maybe not.” -Wolff calculated-.
Toto Wolff, Mercedes
Photo by: Erik Junius
“But it’s always been my way of thinking and something I’ve taken from Niki. Niki gave away her trophies to get a free car wash.
“You won’t find many souvenirs in my houses either because those numbers never mattered for the two of us.
Wolff added that even if statistics didn’t matter to him, Red Bull should be recognized for doing a “great job” that will reward the team with the “most valuable” prize: the constructors’ championship.
And he added: “Formula 1 is a meritocracy. And I said it often this year that only the best will win world championships and we must recognize the great work that is being done there.”
“And in the end, they’ll take another big trophy and that’s something that’s the most valuable. The best person in the best car wins the world championship.”
