Back in the 2017 Australian Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso revealed that he wanted all cars to have the same engines in F1. This, however, didn’t sit well with Lewis Hamilton, who laughed it off. Now, coming into 2023, Hamilton wants an equal playing field, due to the dominant standards set by Max Verstappen and Red Bull.
In the last two years, Red Bull has been nearly unstoppable. Despite showing signs of struggle initially in 2022, the Austrian team recovered strongly to finish miles ahead of their competitors in the championship standings.
Apart from claiming both the drivers’ and constructors’ titles in 2022, Red Bull are once again dominating the sport this season. On the other hand, Mercedes has been going through a slump since the regulation changes, and aren’t showing any major signs of closing the gap to Red Bull.
Mercedes finished P3 in the 2022 standings behind Red Bull and Ferrari. This season, they are P2, but the gap between them and the frontrunners seems to have increased. Now, Lewis Hamilton who’s visibly irked by the sheer dominance of his rivals wants the same thing introduced to F1 that he once laughed about.
Lewis Hamilton wants what Fernando Alonso wanted
After seeing Max Verstappen take six back-to-back victories and eighth in ten races this season, Hamilton is adamant that he wants others to put up a better fight. He wants the level of racing to be similar to that at the karting level, where drivers can have endless wheel to wheel battles.
Speaking about this, the seven-time world champion revealed as per Soy Motor, “As a sport we need to have a conversation about how we can set it up to be better for the future. To have closer races, closer to the peloton.”
However, with his comments, the British driver seemed to have irritated the reigning two-time world champion. Verstappen was not happy with Hamilton’s suggestion and proceeded to attacking him with comments of his own.
Max Verstappen answers Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton recently made a very controversial statement regarding team development. He wants the FIA to allow teams to develop their challengers only after a particular period of time, that will be decided beforehand.
It is believed that Hamilton’s stance comes from his fear of Red Bull dominating the sport in the coming years. Upon hearing the Stevenage-born driver’s comments on a level playing field, Verstappen remarked that when the Mercedes star was winning, nobody said anything on this matter, as reported by Racingnews365.
Almost all successful teams have had their own spell of dominance. Back when Mercedes was unstoppable, it was Red Bull led by Christian Horner who kept calling for changes. Back in 2015, the Red Bull boss wanted FIA to take active measures to put a halt to Hamilton and Nico Rosberg’s dominance.
