F1 parade stalls sport

23 June 2015 - 02:01 By AFP, Reuters

Nico Rosberg had much to celebrate after beating Lewis Hamilton to win Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix, but his Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff admitted afterwards that his team's domination was not good for the sport. After a weekend of mounting speculation about Formula 1's problems, Wolff conceded that Mercedes' supremacy at the front of the pack was not good for business."In terms of the spectacle a team winning over a long period is definitely detrimental. We saw that with Ferrari in the early 2000s. It doesn't help the show, that's clear."Wolff spoke after seeing Rosberg deliver a flawless drive to claim the 11th win of his career and reduce defending two-time champion Hamilton's lead in this year's title race to 10 points - and after Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz threatened to withdraw in frustration.Red Bull's disappointment in not only the quality and power of their engines supplied from Renault, but the current state of Formula 1 with its plethora of penalties and complex regulations was clear throughout the Austrian weekend.Sunday's grid saw Australian Daniel Ricciardo and his Red Bull teammate Russian Daniil Kvyat demoted to the back of the grid with a 10-place penalty for engine changesThe Red Bull team's paddock magazine reflected their ironic view with a tongue-in-cheek front cover story that forecast Hamilton would win the motorsport's world title from 2015 up to 2019.'World Exclusive: The future of Formula 1,' it declared. ..

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