Lewis Hamilton clarifies F1 change plea after Max Verstappen response
ewis Hamilton has called on Formula 1 bosses to step in to stop teams’ periods of dominance in the sport.
Max Verstappen and Red Bull are running away with the drivers’ and constructors’ championships again in 2023.
And Hamilton, who profited from the last period of dominance with Mercedes, said new rules were needed in the development race to halt a single team from running away with the title from one season to the next.
Such is Red Bull’s current superiority, they can turn their attention to next year’s car earlier than their rivals, which Hamilton warned would merely extend their current supremacy.
He said: “It’s not aimed at any one particular person or anything. It’s just obviously in my 17 years of being here, even before I got here, you see a period of time of dominance, and it continues to happen.
“I was really fortunate to have one of those periods that Max is having now. But with the way it’s going, it will continue to happen over and over again, and I don’t think we need that in sport.
“In my personal experience when you’re so far ahead… you don’t really need to do a lot more development on your car, and you can start earlier on your next car. And with a budget cap that means spending that year’s money on the next year’s car.
“But if everyone had a time for example, if everyone knows when we can really start, whatever date it is – October is way too late probably but 1 August, something like that – then no one has a head start, and then it’s a real race in that short space of time for the future car.
“I don’t know, maybe that would help everyone be closer the following year maybe. I might be wrong but something’s got to change. When we were winning world championships, we could start earlier than everybody else.”
Going into this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, Verstappen leads the championship by 69 points from teammate Sergio Perez having won six of eight races to date this season.
But the Dutchman dismissed Hamilton’s plan to help end his and Red Bull’s current dominance.
He said: ‘We weren’t talking about that when he was winning his championships so I don’t think we should now. That’s how Formula 1 works. When you have a competitive car, it’s great but at one point of course you also have to look ahead to next year.
“It’s normal that people behind say these kinds of things but they should also not forget that when they were winning. They would comment a bit different but that’s how it goes in Formula 1.”
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