Lewis Hamilton recently came under fire from Max Verstappen when the Briton claimed that there should be a time limit after which a team can develop their car. Verstappen retorted by saying that no one was saying the same when Hamilton was dominating the sport. But as it turns out, Verstappen couldn’t be more wrong.
Mercedes were at the top of F1 for eight consecutive years from 2014 to 2021. Quite similar to Red Bull’s current run of form, the Silver Arrows were untouchable during that time period. It was only in 2021 that Max Verstappen finally managed to end their run by beating Hamilton to the title.
Verstappen responds to Hamilton’s suggestions of putting a restriction on when F1 teams can start developing their next car 👇 pic.twitter.com/dDQlzkA8D9
— WTF1 (@wtf1official) June 29, 2023
However, a lot of teams had been trying their best throughout that time to slow down the progress of Mercedes. And Red Bull was one of them. They tried their best in 2015 to convince the FIA to do something about Mercedes’s dominance at the time.
Christian Horner asked the FIA to intervene and stop Mercedes
Back in 2014, Mercedes had managed to win 16 out of the 19 races. And with only one race into the 2015 season, it was already clear that catching up with Mercedes would be a task next to impossible.
Hamilton and Rosberg finished 1-2 in the 2015 season opener in Australia, with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo finishing a lap down in P6. What made things even worse was that Mercedes’ fastest lap was nearly two seconds faster than that of the Red Bull.
This irked team principal Christian Horner as he pleaded to the FIA to intervene and equalize the field. “They [the FIA] have a power output so they can see what every power unit is producing,” said Horner. He continued, “They have the facts. They could quite easily come up with a way of some form of equalization.”
Horner finally revealed that the Red Bull engine was down on power by almost 100hp compared to the Mercedes. Therefore, according to Horner, it was necessary for the FIA to step in and reduce the gap between Mercedes and the other teams for the sake of the sport.
The Red Bull dominance
After Mercedes, now it is Red Bull who have managed to set themselves apart from the rest of the grid. The Milton Keynes outfit managed to win 17 of the 22 races in 2022. And with 9 races into the 2023 season, they have won all 9 of them.
Max Verstappen has played a major role in this Red Bull domination. His performance has been a class apart from the rest. His role in Red Bull’s success becomes even more clear when his performance is compared to that of his teammate Sergio Perez who has failed time and time again to keep up with Verstappen in similar machinery.
Lewis in the pen today. He really went after the RBs dominance today. Well said Lewis 😁#AustrianGP 🇦🇹
pic.twitter.com/t7t6xojL0R— Hamilton Insights (@LH44_insights) June 29, 2023
Mercedes recently made a proud claim that they were just one upgrade away from catching Red Bull. However, that seems quite distant from what the reality is. The Red Bull car is so dominant that Verstappen had the luxury of pitting on the last lap of the Austrian GP to get new tires and set a new fastest lap. Quite a lot of work has to be done by the teams if Red Bull is to be caught any time soon.
