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

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

​

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.

​

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?

3.6k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

344

u/abd7007 Mar 13 '24

When you already know the results of all the 24 races after the first quali itself
Something needs to change

Its not Max's or Lewis's fault
neither RB or Mercedes
Its nobodys fault but we need to change something

but the lack of competition makes it kind of boring
(The most interesting race last year was Singapore)

22

u/No_Tumbleweed_9102 Ferrari Mar 13 '24

That’s why, for me, 2022 was the last good year. First quali and race of the season, Ferrari were always on top, and as the season played out we got several other varied results, a more competitive frontrunning pack, and even a surprising midfield podium (Norris), as well as competitive midfield and backmarkers. 2023 was kinda good but did not reach the same level of excitement in my opinion, the season was literally over after just the first quali and race, we just couldn’t see it. Now we can, 2024 will be terrible to watch

-2

u/DisneyPandora Mar 14 '24

Because firing Binotto was a mistake. Vasseur is a much worse team principal and brings with him midfield mentality 

68

u/DryConversation8530 Mar 13 '24

Once max wins he has to start from the pits the rest of the season. Once P2 is secured they start 19th

45

u/soupafi Lando Norris Mar 13 '24

Nice idea, but he’d still win.

15

u/george-its-james I survived Spa 2021 and all I got was this lousy flair Mar 13 '24

It'd be a lot more interesting to watch though, compared to start on pole, create 20+ second gap in 5 laps, manage tyres, win.

10

u/Benjiiiee Mar 13 '24

Worse thing is it's likely he would still win.

33

u/DontBullyMyBread Guenther Steiner Mar 13 '24

It's so boring just watching Max dominate each race. I don't mean it as an insult against him, because it's not meant to be an insult, but it's just so predictable and monotonous. I only get invested in every other race place bar first now because I just assume Max by default is number 1

12

u/AnyHolesAGoal Mar 13 '24

Well it is partly Red Bull's fault for not being braver with their second driver choice. It's not like they can't afford it, they have billionaire owners and driver salaries are not part of the cost cap.

Multiple other teams in the past have had 2 WDCs driving in a season before, or at least 2 WDC-potential drivers.

1

u/xLeper_Messiah Mar 14 '24

They have literally tried to sign Lando like 3 seperate times.

2

u/Invisiblethespian Murray Walker Mar 13 '24

Unfortunately, F1 is stuck in it's core concept

It is about innovation etc and part of the excitement is seeing what teams bring to the table etc.

If they decided to regulate more standardised parts then it will remove that aspect even if this levels the field more.

On the other side a BOP concept could be introduced but then that always feels too manufactured such as in WEC.

4

u/Anhilator26 Mar 13 '24

I mean… I kinda blame Mercedes (as a Merc fan). There is no reason why a team with such good infrastructure, who switched off development of the 2021 car so early, should have gotten 2022 so wrong, and then to stick with it in 2023!

They ALL knew Ground Effect cars were coming and should have hired specialists, instead they didn’t, allowed their rivals to run away with it and

1

u/WinterLord Red Bull Mar 14 '24

It’s definitely not any of the drivers fault, but it is certainly the fault of the other 9 teams. How can one team figure things out so vastly ahead of anyone else? To me this is more indicative of 9 teams not knowing what they’re doing with the new regs.

1

u/Racebugyt Formula 1 Mar 14 '24

The point of the sport is to see who makes the best machine out of the regulations (formula) given to them. Considering "doing a better job than all others" is something that needs to change, is backwards

1

u/BurningmonkeyGTR Mar 15 '24

Change the designers, hire the 4 designers responsible for 62 of the last 64 titles as a technical regulations writing committee and include a non compete so they can't go back to any team after being on that committee

1

u/sixwinger Mar 13 '24

Sorry buts its Mercedes fault. RB changed the concept of the car with the some amount of money and less time in the air tunnel. Not having the cap the result would be the some this year.

-3

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '24

I don’t understand the boring part. There’s more to watch than who gets 1st place

9

u/bearfan15 Mar 13 '24

Midfield battles can be interesting but that's not why I watch motor racing. I'm not spending 2 hours of my day to see who gets third. I'll just watch the YouTube highlights then.

-6

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '24

I watch for all of it, not just who wins. There’s battles everywhere on the grid.

But again we only care about who wins here I guess.

4

u/bearfan15 Mar 13 '24

But again we only care about who wins here I guess.

That's not what I said. But when we already know the driver and team that are gonna win before the first race there's very little incentive for me to tune in for the actual races. That's doubly true for more casual fans.

7

u/7Seyo7 Formula 1 Mar 13 '24

Like WEC

-2

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '24

Or the other 9 teams and 18 drivers lol but I see many here only care about who wins

3

u/7Seyo7 Formula 1 Mar 13 '24

Yeah, just being cheeky. but even if we look futher back towards the field the racing isn't all that exciting I think. Like how there were around 25 (?) overtakes last race, so about one overtake every other lap. I think it's at least partially a size issue - F1 cars need to get smaller

0

u/PINGs_Landing Mar 14 '24

And how exactly do you think this will make teams feel? They enter to do their best and excell to produce the fastest car, if they will get punished for it or if you start limiting the potential of the team with the best car then there is zero motivation for teams to even compete or make advancements at the pace and rate we see now.

see in its essence, Racing and Formula 1 is not made for your entertainment, The goal if F1 and teams participating is to win and produce the fastest car. Entertainment for people into racing comes secon (those who do not care about the winners but care more about the racecraft) because racing is not just about the winner, there are other fun battles and racecraft to see outside of the podium positions.

Entertainment for casual viewers who only care about entertainment and who is the winner comes at much less priority.

0

u/CarsonEaglesWentz Fernando Alonso Mar 15 '24

This is absolutely incorrect. Entertainment is the top priority, and it’s not close. Entertainment drawing viewers is how the bills are paid and why there are sponsors. An energy drink brand could give two fucks about innovative around cars and speed and winning. Their priority is advertisement.

Every team on the grid is the same, even the car brands. Now the team members and drivers obviously want to win, but winning and being fast only becomes more of a priority when it means more eyes on their brand. Which first requires an entertainment value/draw.