Lewis Hamilton and pretty much the entire Mercedes unit have been, if not THE biggest, at least one of the biggest losers of the new Formula 1 era. The F1 think-tank spawned a series of aerodynamical tweaks to the cars in the hopes of promoting close-racing.
Unfortunately, every action has its own repercussions, and quite similarly, despite winning the battle of squeezing the entire grid to a minimal gap, Ross Brawn and others ended up gifting Red Bull the throne. And if anything history has taught us, it’s that Red Bull are absolute fighters who don’t settle for anything and always look to maximize their performances and results.
Therefore, as expected, Max Verstappen and Co. have been dominating the entire grid, pulling off victory after victory since 2022. While last season witnessed reasonable competition at the top, this season has been nothing but straightforward. The term ‘championship rivalry’ was nowhere to be seen or heard, with Verstappen ruthlessly crushing every single one of his opponents.
15 consecutive top-two finishes in #F1 🤯
🟥 Michael Schumacher: Brazil-Japan 2002
1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1
🟦 Max Verstappen: Abu Dhabi 2022 – Italy 2023 (ongoing)
1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 pic.twitter.com/3iMriFssJg
— Autosport (@autosport) September 7, 2023
Hence, quite recently, Hamilton demanded that the FIA make necessary changes to stop the high-flying Red Bull, only for the governing body to reject the Briton’s plea. And now, former world champion Jacques Villeneuve has made a sound statement regarding the echoes of hatred against Verstappen and Co. The Canadian opined that racing has only improved since the new regulations.
Villeneuve lashes out at Lewis Hamilton & Co. amid growing Max Verstappen dominance
Villeneuve reckoned that the new regulations have worked wonders for the sport, with battles taking place almost throughout an entire race weekend. And, as for Verstappen, the Canadian questioned why none of them who are currently voicing against Red Bull’s dominance were present when Hamilton was winning everything in the late 2010s.
“Verstappen is simply the best of the others and that’s it. It makes no sense to say that his domination of him is harmful, people should be happy and proud of what he is doing. Once it was Lewis and Mercedes who won and nobody complained. Why weren’t they complaining about Lewis’ victories, but now they’re complaining about Max? I don’t understand,” he said according to an X fan page.
Jacques Villeneuve:
“Verstappen is simply the best of the others and that’s it. It makes no sense to say that his domination of him is harmful, people should be happy and proud of what he is doing.”“Once it was Lewis and Mercedes who won and nobody complained. Why weren’t they…
— Verstappen News (@verstappenews) September 6, 2023
“It’s not the domination of Red Bull, but it’s the domination of Max. F1 has never been so close, sometimes from 1st to 20th there is only 1s or 1.2s, and that has never happened in history. And people are complaining.” Indeed, the rest of the teams are finally pegging back Verstappen’s formidable lead with constant updates in recent weeks.
Hence, with almost half-season left to go, can one of the rivals pull off a miraculous late comeback to threaten Verstappen and Red Bull’s title hopes this year?
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