Toto Wolff calls McLaren’s dominance ‘humiliating’ after Dutch GP at Zandvoort as rivals left trailing
Mercedes’ Toto Wolff Labels McLaren Advantage “Humiliating” After Dutch GP
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff labeled McLaren’s current advantage “humiliating” for the rest of the Formula 1 field after the Woking outfit notched its 12th victory of the season at Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. In a Dutch Grand Prix analysis that underscores McLaren F1 dominance, Wolff’s reaction highlighted how far Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull must go to close the gap.
A year after Max Verstappen sealed the drivers’ title and Ferrari and McLaren battled over the constructors’ crown—sparking hopes that 2025 would be wide open—McLaren has taken command. Through 15 races, the team leads the constructors’ standings by 324 points, with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris locked in what has become a private contest for the drivers’ championship. This F1 constructors’ standings update frames a growing Oscar Piastri vs. Lando Norris title battle powered by relentless McLaren performance.
The gap was stark at Zandvoort. Piastri and Norris fought for the lead until an oil leak forced Norris to retire, yet even amid late-race chaos their pace told. Wolff highlighted the final safety car restart as a case in point, when both McLarens—on the slower hard compound—eased away from a pack of rivals on fresh softs. That hard tires vs. soft tires strategy difference became a defining Dutch Grand Prix talking point and a key Zandvoort safety car restart analysis for teams chasing McLaren.
“You can see that at the end, the McLaren on the hard tyre, versus all of us on the new soft: this is a humiliation for everyone,” he said. “You have the headline, right?”
Wolff continued: “That's really not great. I think this weekend, between Max, the Ferraris and ourselves, it's a little bit balanced at the moment. Max was the quickest, but Ferrari was just the same. I would say that's not satisfying.”
Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur agreed McLaren had the edge throughout the race but pushed back on Wolff’s characterization, offering his own Ferrari reaction to McLaren’s pace and a measured Dutch Grand Prix performance review.
“It's not only the last stint, I think that if you have a look at the rest of the race, in the middle of the second stint, I don't know if they decided to push or not, but they were also much faster than everybody,” Vasseur said.
“I think they managed their pace in the first 10 laps of the second stint before the VSC, and when they decided to push, they were miles away. Clearly, they are a step ahead in quality, but much more than this in the rest. But humiliation, I won't go so far with it.”
With McLaren’s relentless form stretching into the season’s back half, Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull face a rapidly narrowing window to close the gap in the F1 constructors’ championship—or risk watching the title fight remain an all-McLaren affair. For teams plotting upgrades and strategy, the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort offered a clear benchmark for closing the gap to McLaren in Formula 1.
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