Mercedes boss, Toto Wolff has called on the sport to take action following a processional Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Lionel Hutz, the hopeless lawyer in the early Simpsons episodes, voiced by the brilliant Phil Hartman, would surely have been on the case at the end of Sunday's Grand Prix.

Having sued the makers of The Neverending Story for false advertising, he would surely have set his sights on F1 and the sport's various broadcasters for the bore-fest witnessed when compared to the 'thrill-a-second' promise of the commercial trailers for the race.

Despite the best efforts of the Sky team ahead of the race to stoke the flames following Max Verstappen's verbal encounter with George Russell on Saturday, the only real drama come race day was when Esteban Ocon headed into a pitlane filled with members of the media and team crew members awaiting the podium ceremony.

Those flashy three-abreast, do-or-die battles of the advertisements aside, it was pretty much 51 laps of tedium as - despite the promise and expense of the 2022 rules overhaul - drivers were able to close in on their rivals but still unable to make a pass.

"There was no overtaking today, even with a big pace difference," said Toto Wolff at race end. "It made it not great entertainment.

"We had two cars that are sailing into the sunset on merit and then there's a 20-second gap," he continued. "I wouldn't know today between Aston Martin, Ferrari and us who is quicker, because you're stuck where you're stuck and that's pretty much it.

"At the end it all comes down to racing," said the Austrian. "It needs the tough battles and I think the highlight you could see yesterday (referring to the Sprint) was George and Max being able to battle it out. And today there was none of that.

"Even if you were within 0.2 seconds it was nearly impossible to overtake unless the other driver makes a mistake. We need to look at it and how we can make it better, how we can avoid just a boring race."

Asked whether the FIA had compromised matters by shortening the final DRS zone, which, seeing as DRS itself is an artificial aid to promote overtaking, he admitted: "I'm not sure that 100m more DRS would have made a difference.

"After a race weekend like this we must not talk it down overall, and say that is the wrong direction and we need to change completely," warned the Mercedes boss. "It is more about understanding why was it not so entertaining.

"For us, it is about finding more data sets in the next races, see how this is going to develop and then maybe we need to adjust."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by kenji, 03/05/2023 10:31

"Having some second thoughts...If Wolff et el had built a better car that could challenge the Red Bulls and the Ferraris/AM's then maybe the race wouldn't have been so boring! What a whinger this Wolff is."

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2. Posted by kenji, 03/05/2023 1:05

"The FIA must concentrate their efforts in pursuing a resolution to the DRS train. Maybe a limit to how many times the DRS can be used consecutively would be a better option to the status quo. It would be far better for all concerned and it does in some small way mimic the PTP system used in Indycars insofar as there are limits being implied without any major changes being made to rear wing mechanisms. "

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3. Posted by Celtic Tiger, 02/05/2023 1:24

"Toto best pack a good pillow this season, with nearly a third of the calendar consisting of street circuits. "

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4. Posted by Simon in Adelaide, 02/05/2023 1:23

"Just going back to Max v George, I think Max has been picking up some bad habits from N. Piquet Snr.

I can think of some 'old school' drivers who not have walked away after being called a '********'"

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5. Posted by BrightonCorgi, 01/05/2023 19:30

"Who were to the two were side by side entering the pit lane? That was little drama. Over all a bore-fest as Toto said.

Ferrari did shot themselves in the foot during the race. That is new."

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6. Posted by elsiebc, 01/05/2023 15:33

"With DRS faster cars get in front of slower cars effortlessly and then once it's sorted out there they stay. At least without DRS the slower cars have a better chance of holding up a faster car and the albeit fewer overtakes will be a lot more exciting.

Then there's the strategy. Everything is based on tire degradation so all the teams come down to essentially the same strategy. I wonder what would happen if teams could also vary the weight of their cars, and thus performance, over the course of a Grand Prix. Teams would have more variables to play with, maybe make more pitstops (something the pundits always want), come up with varying strategies. Gee, I wonder how one would go about doing that???

Or maybe since it's "nearly impossible to overtake unless the other driver makes a mistake" and these are the very best drivers in the freaking world making that typically unlikely, maybe that's where the show's promoters should be focused. How about with every pitstop a driver has to take a drink? The further up the order, the stronger the drink? If you're in a podium position you get 151 rum, positions 4 through 6 get Jack Daniels 101, 7 to 10 get an 80 proof, and so on down to the last places who would get an energy shot to improve their performance. This would further do two things: (1) you could ban Russian drivers on the basis of their vodka tolerance being an unfair advantage (not having to weigh in on that whole pesky Ukraine thing), and (2) the "should we race in the middle east or not" discussion would become moot. "

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7. Posted by rambler, 01/05/2023 10:32

"This is a direct result of allowing tyre changes during red flags. Only damaged cars should be allowed into the pit lane under red flags. "

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8. Posted by Spindoctor, 01/05/2023 10:06

"Business as usual, but hey, Liberty is clearly coining it from Baku...."

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9. Posted by Cobra Driver, 01/05/2023 9:45

"Oh, but the pre-race national anthem! They managed to out-Hollywood Hollywood. Or perhaps it was a precursor of what we can expect during the Las Vegas weekend. Just imagine, leggy dancers replacing corner workers, drivers waiting their turn for the makeup artists, track explosions whenever a pass is made (there won't be too many of those), a clown car replacing the AMG, the potentials are endless. I can't sleep in anticipation. One day perhaps, when Liberty is a fading reflection in the rearview, we can get back to racing cars."

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10. Posted by Motorsport-fan, 01/05/2023 8:38

"Reminded us of pre DRS racing, very much follow my leader, push to pass probably next for F1."

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Wolff blasts "boring" Baku

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