via Reuters
Formula One F1 – Austrian Grand Prix – Red Bull Ring, Spielberg, Austria – July 10, 2022. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen celebrates on the podium after placing second in the Austrian Grand Prix. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton celebrates after placing third. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
via Reuters
Formula One F1 – Austrian Grand Prix – Red Bull Ring, Spielberg, Austria – July 10, 2022. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen celebrates on the podium after placing second in the Austrian Grand Prix. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton celebrates after placing third. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
A nightmare for many and a delight for some. The 2022 regulations saw a turnaround from Mercedes‘ sheer dominance. The new set of regulations that were supposed to bring the field closer saw Red Bull’s Max Verstappen win 15 races out of the 22 organized last year. So much for not tilting in favor of a team. The Dutchman created a record for the most dominant season in F1 history with a 75% win rate. However, there is an internal flaw at Red Bull for the Verstappen’s glory.
A weak teammate. This is the answer to Verstappen’s cruising through the field to claim the maximum victories last year. The Adrian Newey wonder was a flawless wonder, which was better than the rest nine teams by a big margin. However, when Verstappen scored 454 points claiming the world title, Sergio Perez ended up 149 points behind in the same machinery. This disparity had never been the case when Lewis Hamilton was in charge of the best machinery on the grid. Hamilton has teammates who were constantly fighting for race wins on pure merit.
🏆 Max Verstappen is on a historic winning streak in F1. He has taken 15 victories in the last 20 races since Imola 2022.
That’s a 75% win rate, higher than any of his rivals. Not even Lewis Hamilton matched that winning percentage over a 20-race stretch from 2014-2021.#F1 pic.twitter.com/7SdQyJGbzS
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) March 6, 2023
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
The fight between Hamilton and his teammates was so intense that in 2016, it was the other Mercedes driver, Nico Rosberg, who ended up winning the world championship title. And Valtteri Bottas remains the most successful driver to not win a world title. However, Perez has not posed these threats to Verstappen, and sometimes, in the chain of command, the team tilts in the Dutchman’s favor.
Fans blast Max Verstappen’s teammate for not being enough
Sergio Perez won 2 races last year as opposed to Max Verstappen’s 15. This has never been the case with the Silver Arrows. Fans believe that if the Mexican can bring his game up, then it will be difficult for Red Bull‘s golden boy to create such records. Some comments from F1 Twitter are as follows:
As a dutch I have to defend Lewis in this: When the Merc was really dominant, Lewis had a really strong team mate and were really free to fight.
— Richard Lamers (@RichardLamers83) March 6, 2023
Rosberg>Bottas> Perez
Max has a driver worse than Barrichello as his teammate, he will be winning every race if they don't have any reliability issues this year.— B1-66ER (@GaussEuler63) March 6, 2023
It states that lewis won all those races with a strong rivalry and strong competition than max now.
— Mahidhar (@Mahidhar0036) March 7, 2023
Lewis had teammates who had the same equipment and were allowed to race him, & had to race a faster red bull in ‘21 & faster Ferraris in ‘17 & ‘18
— Marc Sporfan (@marcsporfanilo) March 6, 2023
That’s what happens when you have the fastest car by a mile and a teammate who isn’t allowed to race you.
— Skydog (@FCB_Skydog) March 7, 2023
And people wonder why there’s more people complaining about dominance now more than Lewis’ years. Besides 2020, in every other year he won there were still multiple other people winning races. I highly doubt that’ll be the case this year.
— Englishman (@NoShowerPom) March 6, 2023
Because Lewis actually had competition
— Honest Verstappen Fan 🇳🇱🇳🇱 (@redbullfanboy88) March 6, 2023
Pretty boring. His own teammate Perez is not allowed to fight the great white hope. This isn't F1… It's cheating. Literally any other driver would win in that car. #ItsTheCarNotVerstappen
— Viv (@viv_1111) March 7, 2023
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
Rosberg>Bottas> Perez
Max has a driver worse than Barrichello as his teammate, he will be winning every race if they don't have any reliability issues this year.— B1-66ER (@GaussEuler63) March 6, 2023
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
Watch This Story: Bromance moments between Max Verstappen & Lewis Hamilton
What are your thoughts on Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s dominance post the 2022 regulation changes? Do you think he would have been able to create such a record if he would have had competition from his teammate?
