Toto Wolff calls for more Qatar GP-ish races as new regulations make ‘overtaking worse’ in F1

Toto Wolff called out the recent increase in the need for tire conservation and decrease in overtaking action.

Toto Wolff calls for more Qatar GP-ish races as new regulations make ‘overtaking worse’ in F1

Mike Elliott and Toto Wolff (Via IMAGO)

Tyre issues have become a standard issue for races in the 2023 F1 season, and now that the conclusion of the year has arrived, these issues will be brought to light by a lot of teams. With Pirelli affirming the continuation of the current compounds for 2024, teams will not see a change until atleast 2025.

With the increasing need to conserve and save tires every race, DRS trains have become a common feature of races. Overtaking has also become extremely hard, as losing position could be redundant due to tire conservation. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has said F1 would benefit a lot from more ‘flat-out’ races like the Qatar Grand Prix, where 18-lap stints were made mandatory for every driver.

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Let's wait to see how it goes, and I think let's see how the Pirelli tyres are going to handle next year's cars. But, at the end when you're looking, overtaking has gotten worse. It's all about thermal management. So, I'd like to have races like Qatar where you just go flat out.
Toto Wolff said, as reported by autosport.com

Albeit taking some controversial measures in the past few months, Pirelli has recently won the battle for F1’s primary tire supplier, extending their contract with the pinnacle of motorsport to continue developing the tires. Their primary competitor, Bridgestone, missed out after planning a comeback following a long hiatus from Formula One.

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Toto Wolff accused of betrayal of information to FIA by rival teams

Formula One teams often have meetings amongst themselves, with information being shared that the FOM does not always know about. This withheld information is usually trusted to be confidential among the teams on the grid, but this doesn’t always happen.

Christian Horner and Toto Wolff
Christian Horner and Toto Wolff (via IMAGO)

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is currently the subject of accusations that the Austrian team boss has been leaking information to the FOM via his wife, Susie Wolff. Susie Wolff is head of the F1 Academy, which is completely owned by the FOM and FIA. In an interview with team bosses where they were kept anonymous, they claimed that anything they said in these meetings would eventually end up with the head of Liberty Media via the Wolff family.

They're saying, 'Hey, we can go and have an internal meeting', and the next thing, it's all over Greg Maffei's (boss of Liberty Media) desk because Toto told his wife, who in turn told Stefano [Domenicali], who's told Greg Maffei.
An anonymous team boss said, as reported by gpblog.com

Toto Wolff was previously rumored to be responsible for a similar incident in 2022 when he reportedly informed the FIA of Red Bull’s over-expenditure beyond the budget cap, which led to their wind tunnel penalty. The Austrian team claimed they did not know the same up until then.

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