Max Verstappen has been dominating F1 since the 2022 season, leading to claims that the sport has become boring. F1’s downfall in viewership and fans losing interest have all been tied to Verstappen’s purple patch. Former Haas boss Guenther Steiner, however, doesn’t blame the Dutchman and calls out the newer generation of fans for spinning this narrative.
On the recent episode of the Nailing the Apex podcast, Steiner spoke about why people are losing interest in F1. He said,
“It is a generational problem“.
According to Steiner, younger people tend to lose interest if the same driver or team keeps winning week after week. Fans who have been watching F1 for a long time, however, are different. He believes that back in the day, people kept watching F1 even though there were other dominant teams and drivers.
The Italian-American cited Michael Schumacher’s and more recently Lewis Hamilton’s dominant eras as examples. Having said that, Steiner does admit that F1 also needs to be respectful of the younger fans. However, he urges the same people to be patient as Verstappen’s dominance too, is bound to end someday.
Instead of categorizing the sport as boring, fans should be appreciative of how consistent Verstappen has been. To explain this, he brings in the 26-year-old’s teammate Sergio Perez into the conversation.
Guenther Steiner believes Sergio Perez is “no fool“
How good Max Verstappen has been over the last three seasons can be deciphered by just looking at his gap to Sergio Perez. In the same podcast, Steiner revealed how there have already been signs that Red Bull is beatable. Still, the 59-year-old believes that Perez is “no fool”.
Last season, Verstappen finished with 575 points. This was more than double of what Perez amassed and while this gap could highlight Perez’s underperformances, Steiner believes that it was just Verstappen who was exceptional.
While there is no doubt that Verstappen is currently in the form of his life, there have often been speculations that Red Bull builds cars that suit his strengths.
However, one of Verstappen’s former teammates, Alex Albon, debunked this myth in an interview last year. He said that Verstappen is just able to manage the car better than his teammates and as a result, he often ends up consistently winning the intra-team battles.
