“Shamelessness has peaked”: Max Verstappen’s ‘manipulation’ response to Toto Wolff’s claim did not sit well with F1 fans

Max Verstappen's dominance in the past two seasons has had a lot to hear from other team principals who are trying to get their cars into the battle for the championship. One such is Toto Wolff.

The Austrian commented on the pace Red Bull carries and mentioned that the races will turn boring because of such dominance by a single team. Not to forget, that Mercedes were in pretty much the same position for almost seven years.

Max Verstappen replied that Wolff is 'hypocritical' for making a statement about the domination of a single team when his own team were on the top for a very long period. RacingNews365 quoted him:

"That is of course because he was winning himself then. You simply cannot manipulate everything to create tension. This is part of sport."

However, this did not go well with the fans, who ironically called Max Verstappen a hypocrite for his 'manipulating' statement. Social media was stormed with their quotes, here are some of the best ones.

"...said - you can’t manipulate the sport. Shamelessness has peaked."

"didn’t you win a whole championship because they changed the rules to make the race more exciting???? like??"

"He ever heard his own team principal talking all those years as well as the reasoning behind the regulation changes?"

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Red Bull advisor feels Mercedes were more dominant than their team and Max Verstappen

Dr Helmut Marko, Red Bull's advisor, replied to Toto Wolff's comment about the team's domination, stating Mercedes were much more dominant than RB earlier in the sport.

Earlier in the sport, it was almost difficult for any team to come close to battle with Mercedes, especially in the 2019 and 2020 seasons, where Lewis Hamilton had complete domination over the grid.

Marko feels that Verstappen is still not that dominant, hence, Wolff's statement is hypocritical to an extent. He said:

"I don't understand all the fuss, but I think Mercedes was much more dominant at the time than we are now. Maybe Mercedes should focus on delivering better work."

Marko also feels that the races are not boring because the world championship battle between both Red Bull drivers (Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen) is intense and the midfield is closing up to battle with each other. He stated:

"The battle for the world championship is completely open with only six points difference between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. Moreover, the midfield has come much closer together."