Max Verstappen Accused of Ringing the ‘Death Knell’ of F1

The dominance of Max Verstappen isn’t showing any sign of stopping after the Dutchman went on to win the Hungarian GP this past weekend despite not starting on pole. After narrowly missing out on the pole to Lewis Hamilton, Verstappen got past him into the first corner and then never looked back as he went on to grab his ninth victory of the 2023 season. Since Verstappen has been in a league of his own this year, there has been a continuous argument about whether his dominance is bad for the spectacle of the sport.

Among the drivers, Hamilton is one who has made his frustrations with Red Bull’s superiority abundantly clear. The Briton believes that the FIA needs to intervene and find ways wherein a single team is not able to dominate for so long.

Although Hamilton has his concerns with Red Bull’s current domination, many others do not believe that the Milton Keynes-based outfit is at fault for the sport getting boring. According to an opinion put out on wtf1.com, the current situation in F1 is not so much about Red Bull’s dominance but how much further back the rest of the teams have fallen.

This is because the author believes that the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari have failed to make the most of the changes in technical regulations to close the gap to the Austrian team. Plus, it appears as though that McLaren CEO Zak Brown also seems to share a similar opinion.

This is because Brown believes (as quoted by talkSPORT) that only Verstappen has been on a league of his own, and that the competition behind him continues to be enthralling. However, others such as Tom Coronel disagree and believe that Verstappen could cause F1’s “death knell“.

Coronel heaps praise for Verstappen but hopes his domination stops

Even though Tom Coronel has a huge amount of respect for what Max Verstappen has been achieving, he hopes that his domination comes to an end sometime soon. The 51-year-old believes that the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix could be a key race where Verstappen and Red Bull may not get the win despite dominating at this venue last year.

“Spa-Francorchamps this weekend, that is of course the circuit where the hammer blow came last year. If it is not there this year, then I will eat a broomstick,” said Coronel while speaking on racingnews365.com’s podcast.

After stating the same, the former Dutch racing driver then went on to explain that if Verstappen were to win this race again, then it would just be bad for the sport. “If that happens, it will almost be the death knell for Formula 1,” Coronel added. If Verstappen were to indeed win the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix, then that would be his tenth victory this season after just 12 rounds.

When it comes to Red Bull, they would want to extend their record-breaking run of wins to 13. Since they have been consistently superior over the last two seasons, Verstappen believes it is the responsibility of others to catch up rather than for them to slow down.

Max Verstappen believes the others need to get better

Earlier this year, Max Verstappen provided an interesting comparison between Red Bull’s recent domination and that of Manchester City’s. With the English soccer team winning the treble last season, the Dutchman explained in a conversation with talkSPORT about how Pep Guardiola’s side are perhaps winning a bit too much at the moment.

While Verstappen acknowledged that his favorite soccer club in the Premier League (Manchester United) are struggling at the moment, he does not believe that it is Manchester City’s fault for being so dominant. He then compared the superiority of the ‘Cityzens’ to that of Red Bull by stating that it is just the others that need to get better.

However, the question is whether the other teams can actually compete with Red Bull this season considering that they have comprehensively outperformed in all aspects, including development.