“Outperformed by a Soft Drink Producer”: Lewis Hamilton & Co. Become Collateral Damage in Fans’ Debate on Red Bull Sparked by F1’s Rockstar

“Red Bull are just a drinks company,” this statement made by Lewis Hamilton in 2011, came back to haunt him a decade later when the same drinks company took away his eighth title hopes. Even though he has now backtracked on his statement, Milton Keynes continues to beat other teams which have primarily been automobile manufacturers. However, Hamilton hasn’t only been losing on track, as he has somehow become a target of the Red Bull dominance debate.

“They should win every race of the year,” said an astonished George Russell predicting Red Bull dominance for the 2023 season campaign. Milton Keynes certainly tapped into the blessing of speed gods that remained shy from the rest of the grid. And while that may make the sport “boring” from a viewer’s perspective, Guenther Steiner believes nobody should be penalized for doing a good job.

As quoted by Autosport, Steiner believes that Adrian Newey and Red Bull did a great job and they shouldn’t be slowed down. He also is of the opinion that sooner rather than later the teams will catch up to them. He said, “But they did a fantastic job. And therefore, you cannot blame the regulations for that. Because if somebody does a better job than anybody else, they should get the advantage.”

While it may seem like a Red Bull versus the rest of the slow grid debate, fans have reeled in the German clan, which dominated the sport for two years less than a decade.

Fans say Red Bull domination is acceptable because other teams did not stop Lewis Hamilton and the team

For eight long years, the outcome of the WDC and the battle for the championship became an obvious one. Lewis Hamilton won all the championships from 2014 to 2020 with an exception of 2016 when his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg took it home. And as RB seems miles ahead of everyone right now, fans have recalled the fact that much wasn’t done to press the brakes on Mercedes’ dominance. Take a look at how F1 fans have reacted on Reddit about Steiner’s remarks.

“Imagine being an actual automobile manufacturer and getting outperformed by a soft drink producer”

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“It’s been one year of red bull domination and this shit is starting yet they did nothing to stop merc for 8 years”

“While I agree with the sentiment, F1 has a history of trying stuff to reign in any runaway leaders. Red Bull deserve the plaudits they are getting for having such a great car (and driver obv) but it’s normal for them to want to close up the gap somewhat.”

“What is the incentive to create a great car if three races in, people are calling for nerfing? There has to be some time to allow competitors to .. Compete. Not by changing the rules but by getting better.”

“I think about this when I hear comments about F1 will lose popularity if 1 team wins all the time. The sport became bigger than ever during the 7 years a single team won both titles.”

” “dealing with the consequences of being too good” …. What should the consequences of success be, exactly? Other than trophies”

“It’s funny, you don’t see it in other sports. In other sports, if a team is better, everyone in the media applauds their hard work and smart decision making.Yet in F1, the winner is immediately to be nerfed. Only if we don’t like the winner though. The Mercedes pressure only got bad after a few years. Whereas Red Bull can hardly win a race before nerf talks start.”

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Do you think it is fair for the sport when one team is so heavily dominant? Can you draw any parallels from any other sport?