Toto Wolff says drivers ‘nostalgic’ over F1 2026 complaints but opens door to ‘flexibility’
Toto Wolff defended the new rules and said the opinion of the fans was ultimately the most important.
Toto Wolff suggested F1 can be “very nostalgic” after a number of drivers complained about the new regulations and compared them negatively to the previous iteration.
World Champion Lando Norris did a 180 on his opinion in pre-season testing and has now become one of the many drivers suggesting the new rules had made the sport worse.
Toto Wolff responds to driver complaints
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Norris initially told the likes of Max Verstappen to leave F1 if he did not like it but changed his tune after qualifying in Australia, remarking that the sport had gone from the “best” cars to the “worst.”
Verstappen meanwhile has been consistent in his criticism with footage resurfacing from 2023 of his initial concerns with the new rules and the Dutchman’s predictions played out in qualifying when the drivers were seen losing speed as the car attempted to recharge the battery.
The race itself proved exciting initially with Ferrari battling George Russell but Mercedes’ dominance soon shone through and the Silver Arrows completed their 61st one-two.
Asked about the likes of Norris criticising the 2026 regulations, Mercedes CEO and team principal Wolff suggested there was a tendency to be “nostalgic” and that no driver was praising the cars last year.
“I didn’t hear any one of the drivers speaking particularly good of the last cars and saying it was the best car,” Wolff said in his post-race media session. “So we tend to be very nostalgic and looking at past events.
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“But clearly we’re all stakeholders of the sport. We need to have a great spectacle – the best cars in the world and the best drivers, and being exciting for the fans, and that’s why we just need to look at the product.”
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali criticised the likes of Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton for their complaints but the opening race would suggest the drivers with a combined 11 World Championships were correct in their predictions.
Wolff said, though, that Domenicali’s main goal is whether fans enjoyed it.
“One perspective is the view of the drivers, which is an important perspective but Stefano would say that the single matrix that matters to him is whether the fans like it.
“That is what we need to look at and if it needs to be tweaked, if we need to adjust, I think we have the flexibility in Formula 1 to always take those decisions.”
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