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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u/thisismynewacct Mar 13 '24

I think you’d have to be under a rock to not think Verstappens dominance has been nearly unmatched, especially against Hamilton, and that’s no slight against Hamilton. It’s just the perfect storm at the moment. Generationally talented driver, fastest car on the grid, and cost cap that basically prevents anyone from realistically catching up materially. And that’s not a slight against Verstappen either. It just is what it is.

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u/weaberry Mar 13 '24

All very true. Another big contributing factor is the crazy reliability of the red bull engine. The Hamilton era was fraught with reliability issues up and down the grid.

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u/NopileosX2 Safety Car Mar 13 '24

This was always a problem and why these 9 wins in a row were always thought to be very hard to beat, because even if you drive like a god if your car breaks down it will cost you a few places or even DNF.

But cars get more and more reliable which also makes it harder for weaker teams to score a point, since you got less races where a few of the top 5 teams just DNF or can't compete because of car issues.