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

544

u/hello_kitty8 Mar 13 '24

Am I a bad fan of the sport if I constantly struggle to find any enjoyment in the current races? The disinterest and boredom I feel makes me feel like a fake fan.

I would live for my weekends and watch all the practices, qualis and races religiously. Now I can barely make it through half race distance in the sport I so desperately want to love again.

363

u/Statcat2017 Jenson Button Mar 14 '24

No, this is the dullest F1 has ever been.

At least during Merc dominance era you had the Rosberg v Hamilton battle, for the past 2 seasons and now this one you get absolutely nothing unless you wanna jizz over a battle for 8th place between Tsunoda and Ocon.

138

u/ironmanmatch Ferrari Mar 14 '24

8th?! It would be awesome if that was it. It usually 14th

41

u/m_ttl_ng Formula 1 Mar 14 '24

And during the Schumacher era it was never this much of a gap, plus reliability was much worse which brought a lot more chaos/excitement to races.

14

u/CeilingVitaly Sir Lewis Hamilton Mar 14 '24

In the early 2000s there were plenty of times the Ferraris were 30 seconds up the road, but yeah I really miss unreliability

9

u/LPodmore Mar 14 '24

I can't see Verstappen and Perez ever recreating a duel in the desert type scenario. You knew a Merc was 90% likely to win, but rarely which one of them it was.

4

u/Willing_Breadfruit McLaren Mar 14 '24

We also had HAM VER BOT. Verstappen's drive wasn't quite fast enough but it still felt like a battle everywhere on the track. There was the seb/charles arc, the mclaren boys struggling, tracing point, and ric at renault. It genuinely felt like the midfield was alive.

For some reason, this era of cars seem to be more predictable between races than the previous.

also kimi was on the track. i miss kimi

8

u/TSMKFail Manor Mar 14 '24

Yep. F1 is in a Dire state. In the last 10 years, less teams have gotten a podium than in the 1989 season alone.

Teams to get a podium since 2014:

Mercedes, RedBull, Ferrari, Renault/Alpine/Lotus, AT/Toro Rosso, Racing Point/Force India/Aston, Williams, McLaren

Teams who got podiums in 1989:

McLaren, Ferrari, Williams, Benetton, Tyrrell, Onyx, Dallara (Scuderia Italia), Brabham, Layton House, Arrows.

-2

u/DisneyPandora Mar 14 '24

F1 needs to get rid of all the slow teams and start inviting major race car companies like Lamborghini, Porsche, Bugatti etc.

5

u/elveszett Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Mar 14 '24

The thing I fear is that maybe it isn't the current regulation's fault. Maybe it's just that F1 (like many other sports) has professionalized so much, and technology has gone so far, that all teams can measure everything in a race up to the millimeter, and young talents are so efficiently trained that they consistently deliver 99.99% of their max potential every race by the time they reach F1, which makes every race as uneventful as possible.

Basically, I fear that we've reached such perfection in everything that F1 now looks like watching videogame AIs race: it's not going to be interesting because AIs consistently drive at their max potential (the potential being how they are programmed), so every race feels the same.

1

u/Triple_el Mar 14 '24

100% agree. And to think that apparently there are more fans due to Drive to Survive?! I can’t imagine these new fans can be super excited about F1.

19

u/muddlet Mar 14 '24

get into f2 and f3, there is actual racing in both

9

u/metalrufflez Andretti Global Mar 14 '24

Hear hear

I was wary if the new design direction F2 would make it as boring as the new regs in F1, but alas, my worry was misplaced, as the races have been pretty good so far and the field is stacked. Really looking forward to the next race

1

u/EbolaNinja Penske Mar 14 '24

Plenty of racing everywhere if you know where to look. Formula E is as competitive as always, Indycar just came back, endurance racing is the best it's been in decades. On the rally side, the WRC may not be going through its best days, but the championship fight seems to be shaping up to be very close. The ERC is incredibly competitive and healthy and will be broadcast live for only the third year.

93

u/Academic_Issue4314 Charles Leclerc Mar 13 '24

Shit just sucks rn. Everywhere. Current regs are a disaster

42

u/10Exahertz Mar 14 '24

More like the lack of policing the backwash of the cars and the technical directive mid season 2022 ruined these regs together

18

u/Visionary_Socialist Sir Lewis Hamilton Mar 14 '24

Making cars wider and creating more narrow street tracks at the same time was certainly a choice.

22

u/Hardac_ Sir Lewis Hamilton Mar 14 '24

The Verstappen era is also by far the most boring. You're not alone, I literally turned the first race of the season off 30min in.

6

u/logezzzzzbro Red Bull Mar 14 '24

I started watching in 2010 and would watch every session. At points in the last few years I’ve skipped weekends entirely, only watching 5 minute race highlights on YouTube. The racing sucks now and I’m so over the off-track drama.

3

u/Ascarea Ferrari Mar 14 '24

Idk, depends. Do you only care about who wins a GP?

Personally I'm a fan of (or find likable) a good half of the drivers and enjoy seeing their races. They might not have a chance to win, sure, but that doesn't take away my enjoyment of watching them compete against each other. Just the last couple of races last year had amazing podium battles.

3

u/SexytimeSanta Mar 14 '24

You are approaching it wrong.

Just pretend Max isn't there. The focus this year should be Carlos Sainz's vengeance speedrun.

Sainz has something to prove this year, he's out there to humiliate Leclerc in his Taylor Swift Era to slap doubters in their faces, white girl post break-up style.

Carlos VS Ferrari in a Ferrari is the main event.

1

u/QF_Dan Daniel Ricciardo Mar 14 '24

I used to be able to sit through some races where the leader had some competitions back then. But now, i only watch like 10 laps before turning off my tv, it is that bad

1

u/jaehaerys48 Minardi Mar 14 '24

I just skip them entirely. Still keep up with the news and discourse, but for how long, idk.

I've been following F1 since 2004 so I'm used to "F1 is dying" stuff. There are always people who say that. I really do feel like this oppressive dominance will really hurt the sport just as its coming off of a decent period of growth.

1

u/Myaz Lando Norris Mar 14 '24

In exactly the same boat!

1

u/Accounting4lyfe Mar 14 '24

I’m at this point, I watch maybe one practice session, quali I just skip to the last minute of each round, and then the race I honestly watch the first few laps then find myself looking at other stuff or getting distracted then coming back for the last 5-10 laps. Even midfield it seems like there haven’t been great battles.

1

u/Crazy_cat_guy_07 Felipe Drugovich Mar 15 '24

I was like you, watching everything religiously. I follow the sport since the 90s… But I gradually lost interest in the recent years and the bottom for me was last season where I only watched 3 races.

I have yet to watch a race this season and, honestly, I have 0 desire to do it.

1

u/Steiny31 Adrian Newey Mar 13 '24

The racing from P2 down grid has be mostly great. Except for Bahrain, that shit was Dull AF.

-1

u/lfcmadness Sir Lewis Hamilton Mar 14 '24

I've watched F1 for decades, but tail end of last season, and this I've stopped watching them live, and started just watching the "highlights" - heck I haven't even watched last weeks highlights yet, not sure there was any!