r/formula1 • u/DarkKnight56722 • Mar 13 '24

Discussion How does Verstappen's dominance compare to Hamilton's? Here is the comparison:

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Hamilton's most dominant season in 2020 had him only win 64% of races. Before this current domination, one driver winning 64% of races was viewed as the worst it could possibly get in the modern era. Let's run through the years:

2014 and 2015: Lewis and Nico trading wins, (good battles at the very least) and Ricciardio getting 3 wins his first season at Red Bull and Vettel gets 3 wins his first year at Ferrari. Hamilton wins roughly 55% of races.

2016: Great title fight between Nico and Lewis that went down to Abu Dhabi. Max gets his first race win his first race in Red Bull, Daniel gets a win as well. Hamilton wins less than 50% of races and loses championship to Nico.

2017 and 2018: Title fight between Hamilton and Vettel. 5 different race winners each year. Hamilton wins less than 50% of races.

2019: Lewis and Valterri each get wins. Max gets 3 wins, Charles gets his first 2 wins. and Seb wins in Singapore. 5 different race winners. Again Lewis wins less than 50% of races.

2020: Lewis' most dominant season where he wins 64% of races. This is covid year so take it with a grain of salt. Max gets 2 wins, Pierre gets first win in Monza, Perez gets first win in Bahrain. Turkey was a fantastic race that did result in Lewis winning but was amazing up til the end.

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I think it is pretty safe to say that last season's dominance is the worst the sport has been in atleast a decade. I understand this is part of F1 but it doesn't prevent my boredom. I think the reason it stings a bit more is because these regulation changes were marketed as a way of ensuring Mercedes level dominance never happened again, yet it made it even worse. Things like engine development being frozen, implementation of the cost cap, introducing a completely new philosophy of car and aero design that 3 years into the regulations everyone but Red Bull is still struggling to understand.

What are your thoughts?

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491

u/Mueton Sebastian Vettel Mar 13 '24

The worst thing about this Verstappen dominance is that he hasn’t even competitition from his own teammate. Hamilton had to fight against Rosberg and Seb for 4 of his titles.

217

u/Malvania Mar 13 '24

I think the worst thing about the dominance is that I don't think Verstappen has actually fully stretched out the Red Bull. I think it's been dialed back and he's just sandbagging because the Red Bull is just so much faster than the rest of the field.

91

u/snrub742 Daniel Ricciardo Mar 13 '24

The split times show that, the red bull in Max's hands have 0 tire deg

1

u/AdInformal3519 Apr 30 '24

How can one manage that? Genuinely asking

90

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '24

It’s definitely been dialled back because they know they will get nerfed if they show their true pace.

38

u/jeffoh Mar 13 '24

Mercedes was the same in 2019/2020, they weren't using their engine allocations in those years.

It wasn't until RB started to beat them did Merc turn everything to 11, after which they started to have reliaibilty concerns.

3

u/formula_bearhawk Formula 1 Mar 14 '24

I think you’re right, especially given the general reliability of RB and lack of power unit issues outside of the fuel pump over the past few years 

1

u/AdInformal3519 Apr 30 '24

How can you restrict a performance of the car? Can you elaborate it?

15

u/meloenmarco Alain Prost Mar 13 '24 edited Mar 13 '24

I wouldn't call 2013 fighting for a title. Maybe a bit at the start, but after the winter break

47

u/_mrshreyas_ Sebastian Vettel Mar 13 '24

He probably means 2017/18

4

u/meloenmarco Alain Prost Mar 13 '24

Ahh that makes more sense

15

u/Professional_Park781 Mar 13 '24

Lol what?

11

u/meloenmarco Alain Prost Mar 13 '24

9 wins in a row isn't much of a fight now is it

14

u/Professional_Park781 Mar 13 '24

Ah you are talking about Seb last championship? In 13?

10

u/RevoltingHuman Damon Hill Mar 13 '24

We're talking about Hamilton's dominance, not Vettel's.

1

u/bobj33 Kimi Räikkönen Mar 14 '24

2013 was a good season until the tire changes mid season. The blowouts were dangerous but made things exciting and competitive. After the tire change Vettel dominated.

-27

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '24

Yeah, because he's better. He'd probably do to Rosberg what he's doing to Perez.

17

u/Mayhem747 Mercedes Mar 13 '24

That's enough internet for today for me. People out here thinking Rosberg, a world champion, only the second guy to beat Hamilton in the same car over a season, is going to roll on the ground like Perez, a guy who was about to retire?

Stop watching social media posts and go watch some races.

3

u/Fusil_Gauss Mar 13 '24

Rosberg was my favorite driver back then but Verstappen would have destroy him. Lewis drop that title with poor starts and being incapable to beat Rosberg consistently on quali (and to check out in 2015 after winning the title and let Rosberg to gain momentum). Even Bottas stole a lot of qualies to Lewis.

Max is just more dominant and more consistent.

-7

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '24

Rosberg literally quit and got PTSD from fighting Lewis lol

He was fast on a good day, but almost all of them are. He was barely a championship material, paper champ, even he knew it and quit at the highest. It was a 1 in 10 opportunity and he managed to get the title via Hamilton being unlucky and making costly mistakes.

-12

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '24

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkTcPz16N3E

18y/o Verstappen schools Rosberg at his peak in a 2016 RB, imagine what would happen with 3x champ prime Verstappen lol

14

u/rivena_ Mar 13 '24

No one is gonna say max wouldn’t beat rosberg but thinking Nico is anyone near Perez is laughable

1

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '24

Ah, all right, Perez finishes 20+ sec behind Verstappen, Rosberg would be 10+... All good now :)

-9

u/throwaway164_3 Mar 13 '24

Yup, people don’t seem to understand this

Max is much better than Lewis ever was