Fans may hate F1 dominance, but it's at the series' heart

Max Verstappen may not have realised it when he sprayed the champagne on the podium with Honda's technical director Toyoharu Tanabe, but his triumph in Austria last weekend was an important one for keeping the Japanese manufacturer's records intact.

By stopping the Mercedes steamroller, Verstappen maintained a 21-year-old record that the German manufacturer has now failed to match on the three occasions it has had the chance to do so.

Back in 1988, the McLaren-Honda partnership delivered a record-breaking 11 consecutive race wins, a feat that Mercedes would have equalled if it had come out on top at the Red Bull Ring, as it had previously gone unbeaten since last year's Mexican Grand Prix.

After Mercedes missed out on an 11th straight win, the fact it was a Honda-powered team that stopped its streak was not lost on Toto Wolff: "Maybe they had this extra force to stop it, so we cannot do more," he said.

Dominance is a strange thing in any sport; the lines between appreciation and boredom can get very blurred. Some have slated the state of F1 because of Mercedes' stranglehold, while others would not begrudge it the first-ever perfect season for a team.

Having the same winner each weekend may be boring, but runs of dominance prove F1 is a meritocracy and a pretty brutal one at that.

If F1 was just 'entertainment', and fake gimmicks helped shake up the order so you didn't have to be the best to win, it would take away much of what makes F1 special.

Mercedes crushing the competition is peak sport - where the best come out on top and it's the job of the opposition to simply do better. And when someone does, like Verstappen did last weekend, it feels that much more rewarding.

Wolff acknowledges F1 is better if there are different winners, but that it's essential the best are rewarded. When asked during the Austrian GP weekend if he was worried about criticism aimed at Mercedes for making F1 boring, Wolff said: "No, my heart is 100% with Mercedes. Our sole objective is to optimise on our performances on track. No other.

"[But] there is the fan in me who wants exciting races, the knife-edge result and maybe a championship decider in the last lap of the last race.

"So we need to look at all aspects of how we can find sporting and technical regulations that allow closer racing in the future. And you need to do it with a long-term perspective because every team will be focused on their short-term advantages. It is a pattern in F1."

The potential for perfection is a driving force in F1; going that extra mile is essential for the championship's value. Things must not be decided by lottery because it is more entertaining

While living through periods of dominance like the start of 2019 may not be great in the moment, upon reflection - with examples such as the famous Ayrton Senna/Alain Prost 1988 campaign in mind - we gain a greater appreciation.

It is also important to realise too that Mercedes' dominance was not handed to the team on a plate, and to remember almost everyone went into the season opener in Australia convinced Ferrari was the team to beat.

Wolff says alarm bells were ringing in pre-season testing for Mercedes. Not at the first test, when it knew it was only running an interim version of its car. But in the second week, when its definitive 2019 car did not do what was expected.

"I was worried," he admits. "I wasn't worried in the first test, because in the first test we saw a very impressive Ferrari. When you stood out on track, you could see the braking into Turn 1, and Turns 2 and 3. They were mighty.

"You could see on track that the Ferrari was really good, but then I knew that we would bring an upgrade package that would completely change the car. And we put it on the track on the Monday and it didn't correlate, and on the second day it didn't correlate.

"We thought we had a real problem there. But it all changed on the third day when the car somehow came together. And on the fourth day when we were equalling Ferrari's time, it was the first time in the eight days of testing we had the feeling that there was a path that seemed sensible."

Wolff is convinced that Mercedes' results have been better than its true relative performance against Ferrari, as he believes his rival's troubled start in Australia, and Charles Leclerc's heartbreak in Bahrain proved to be mentally costly.

"I think somehow the momentum that Ferrari had in Bahrain was lost because they had the quickest car in Bahrain and they should have won the race with Leclerc," he says.

"Charles was the quickest guy in Baku, before his crash in qualifying, and Sebastian was in the lead in Montreal before the penalty came. So it could easily have been very different based on pure performance."

Much of Mercedes' success is down to hard work, and the way that Wolff has been able to bring the best out of people.

"We have been able to create an environment where you actually enjoy your job," he says. "It is a good place. There is no politics. I have zero tolerance for internal politics. We can do politics to the outside when we seek regulations that are good for the sport or good for us. But there is zero tolerance for internal politics.

"It is about brutal honesty with each other. We blame the problem, but not the person. If somebody makes a mistake then we try to understand why and we try to avoid it in the future. Or we develop that person.

"Let's please look at the 2021 rules and see how we can make it better, but fundamentally F1 is an unapologetic meritocracy" Toto Wolff

"I think that it is truly about taking care of the human and their objectives. I think it is as simple as it is. We truly care about each other.

"It is not some kind of tree-hugging sentence that we have read somewhere on a billboard. It is the mindset that works in this team: and it translates into all areas of the organisation."

That brutal honesty has been key for Mercedes - it prevents complacency, never taking its victories for granted. Even now, Wolff remains paranoid about title ambitions.

"I hear people say to us when we reflect about our performance: 'Come on! It's a home run this championship'," adds Wolff. "But the way our mindset works is deep scepticism about whether the performance levels are enough to make it.

"It is not some kind of psychological game that we are trying to play, it is really an attitude and a respect for the performance of the others, that can come at any time - and that we have seen glimpses of - that makes us stay grounded.

"You cannot buy anything from previous performances; whether it is eight race wins in a row or five championships in a row. As a matter of fact, it always starts from zero at the next track. And it is a mindset that the team has had over the years that has kept us honest. It is a relentless chase of perfection that doesn't exist."

That potential for perfection is a driving force in F1, going that extra mile is essential for the championship's value. Things must not be decided by a lottery just because it is more entertaining. And for Wolff, as talks continue about the 2021 rules, it is important that F1 doesn't close off the elements that allow domination as it would rip out its heart.

"Let's please look at the 2021 rules and see how we can make it better, but fundamentally F1 is an unapologetic meritocracy," says Wolff. "The best driver in the best machine wins. And if you want to change the concept and equalise, then you are changing the DNA of F1.

"So, what I am saying is: let's look at the regulations for 2021 and let's do the best, let's tweak what is not good today and let's optimise what is good. But on top of that let's please be aware of what the DNA of F1 is and not change it."