Amid Accusations of Targeting Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton Provides Hard-Hitting Evidence to Bury ‘Dominance’ Controversy

“We shouldn’t have a chance to dominate for a large number of years. The battle for top positions should be closer. Unfortunately, however, Red Bull could seriously dominate in the next three seasons as well.” Coming from Lewis Hamilton, who, along with Mercedes, dominated F1 for seven years, this seemed quite hypocritical. He even suggested the FIA to set a date before which no team could start working on next season’s car. This came after Hamilton heard Red Bull has already started working on its 2024 challenger. Needless to say, this became controversial, seeing as how no one interfered when Mercedes was dominating the turbo-hybrid era. Or so we thought.

All this pointed to Hamilton doing his best to restrict Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s superiority over the rest of the field. While many thought how unfair it was for the seven-time champion to try to bring down his and Mercedes’ 2021 rival, he has good reason to do so.

The FIA rained on Lewis Hamilton & Co.’s “party mode” parade

All this time, Hamilton was facing backlash for saying what he did about Verstappen’s dominance. But now, there’s conclusive evidence pointing to the fact that there were attempts to restrict Mercedes during its era as well. In the build-up to the Italian GP, the seven-time champion was asked if he thinks changes need to be brought in to reduce Red Bull’s advantage. As quoted by Motorsportweek, he said, “I don’t know what’s been proposed. I’ve not heard anything.”

He continued, “But we’ve experienced lots of changes, which were put in place to slow us down over the years, and I think that it was better for the sport.” To prove his case, he revealed, “If you look at 2021, for example, our qualifying pace was amazing… I think it’s 2021 or 2020, I can’t remember, but where they took away our qualifying mode, for example, brought us closer in qualifying. And on one side, the engineers just did an incredible job and they deserved that in merit, but I think from a racing fan we want to see all of us a lot closer”

In 2018, Mercedes developed a powerful engine mode for qualifying, and because of how fun the car was to drive after, Hamilton called it the “party mode.” As per FIA’s technical directive introduced in 2020, it banned the use of different engine modes for qualifying and the race, all to bring down the advantage Mercedes had in qualifying by turning up its engine to party mode.

Read More: Hamilton Accused of Unknowingly “Taking a Dig” at Vettel & Schumacher by Insulting Verstappen’s Success

So, while Hamilton’s comments might seem hypocritical, they’re really not, and his concerns for F1’s future are valid. There’s just one thing: a Red Bull key figure himself doesn’t believe this dominance will last.

Christian Horner gives his verdict on Hamiton’s concerns about F1’s future

When F1 returned after the summer break, Charles Leclerc expressed his feelings about Red Bull’s dominance at the Dutch GP. He said, “They have a really big margin, and it’s going to be very difficult to catch them before the change of regulations [in 2026].” Agreeing with what Leclerc said, Hamilton added, “We don’t have a rule change coming up, so I’m going to hope [a continued Red Bull dominance] is not the case. They are 100-200 points ahead in the championship, so it is very, very possible that Charles could be right.” They believe their teams would have no chance to compete for the championships for at least two more years.

In response to what Leclerc and Hamilton said, Jacques Villeneuve explained, “Why would [trying to catch Red Bull] be futile? Mercedes were so far ahead, and no one else gave up. It’s possible that Red Bull arrives at a point where they can’t evolve the car because they hit a wall in the development, and Mercedes finds something.” Christian Horner gave his opinion on Red Bull’s reign over F1, saying, “Red Bull dominance won’t last forever. One day, we’re going to get beaten. That’s inevitable and guaranteed. It’s just a question of when. Obviously, we want to make the ‘when’ as far away as we can.”

Do you think the FIA will intervene once again to dilute Verstappen and Red Bull’s dominance, especially after what Lewis Hamilton revealed?

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