SUMMARY
- Max Verstappen has been dominating the sport since his first Championship Victory in 2021.
- Red Bull and Max has been dominating the race without leaving gap for other drivers to reach podium.
Max Verstappen was only 17 when he joined Formula 1. The driver started his F1 career in 2015 with Red Bull’s second team Toro Rosso(currently known as Visa CashApp RB). From being one of the youngest drivers to join F1 to breaking records set by legends, the Dutch Driver Came a long way.
While Max Verstappen has absolutely dominated the sport, many fans believe this is because of the overpowered Machinery. Former F1 driver and 4-time World Drivers Champion Alain Marie Pascal Prost is convinced the same. While Prost did not discredit Verstappen for his terrific performance and fights in the GP’s, he certainly feels that the victories are of less value.
Alain Prost on titles losing their value due to Max Verstappen’s dominance.
The former F1 driver Prost was recently interviewed by Sports Illustrated. During the interview, many trending topics were talked about. Including Hamilton’s move to Ferrari, Verstappen’s dominance, and His partnership with teammate/rival Ayrton Senna. One of the main topics was whether Verstappen’s dominance had affected the sport for fans.
To which Prost said, “Today, the big teams are organised a little bit more like a number one driver, number two, especially with Max, for example, at Red Bull. So, it’s a little bit different, but I still think that if you have a fight for a championship with two or three different teams, the value of the winning driver is always better.”
While Alain Prost regards Max Verstappen as one of the best F1 drivers, he feels Verstappen’s dominance has hurt the value of his titles.#MaxVerstappen #RedBull #Formula1 #F1 https://t.co/UfI3xteQVm
— PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) April 14, 2024
He added, “But, it’s always a difficult thing because, for example, Max is one of the best drivers today. Maybe the best, you have to accept that. “If you look at the perception that people can have – he’s winning because of this car, so in fact, it’s not as good for himself, which is a shame, because I think he’s really part of the success.”
In olden times racers used to compete with each other irrespective of them being your teammates. This system has changed a lot, Now teams can prioritize one driver over the other, following the rule of Driver number 1 and 2. The team’s prioritizing drivers will lead to reduced competition between the teammates. Prost believes this is what happened with Max Verstappen, Max’s victories are reduced to him gaining success only because of the powerful car and not getting challenged by Sergio Perez.
Prost believes that Drivers need to change teams and win Championship Titles with different teams, this would prove the victories are not completely based on the car but also on the driver’s skills. A stunning performance from Sergio Perez at the Suzuka qualifying which pushed Max to deliver a better lap just proves Prost’s point.