When Lewis Hamilton criticizes the golden era that Max Verstappen and his Red Bull team are experiencing, he is well aware of exposing himself to criticisms from those who will remind him that he didn’t voice similar concerns when he was the protagonist of a winning cycle. Nevertheless, the seven-time champion seizes every opportunity to make this point and calls for intervention from the Federation, believing that the attempt at the budget cap to level the playing field has failed and that the urgency is to curb Red Bull’s dominance.
According to the Mercedes driver, if the Formula 1 rules remain unchanged, there is not only the “risk” of witnessing Red Bull’s supremacy until at least 2025 (the last year of this generation of power units), but also of continually witnessing winning cycles from one team or another. And the next one could be Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton’s comments
“These are discussions that have always come up, even when Mercedes was dominating. I remember when we were battling against Ferrari and there were years where we had an edge over our rivals. Of course, I wanted to win or at least be ahead to fight, but having half a second on the car behind is not fulfilling. What you really want is a battle, because that’s what racing is all about. So the FIA introduced new rules, and the budget cap was supposed to level the field, but it hasn’t,” Lewis Hamilton said to Channel 4. “If we continue like this, maybe Ferrari will dominate in the coming years, or perhaps McLaren will, or maybe Mercedes will return to the front. But I don’t think that’s the best thing for the fans. We shouldn’t have the chance to dominate for several years. The battle for top positions should be closer, and yet Red Bull could dominate even in the next three seasons.” – the British driver pointed out.
“Max and his team have done an incredible job and deserve all the success. From the fans’ perspective, I believe no one wants to see a cycle like the ones I, Michael Schumacher, and Sebastian Vettel went through. We need to keep improving to have a tighter fight for the Championship: having a title open and decided in the final race is the best thing that can happen,” the Briton concluded. “I think we need to keep talking about bringing the cars closer together: if they’re closer, it will be more exciting for the fans. It’s great when the championship is fought until the last race. And the more teams participate, the better it is.”
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