Why Verstappen’s Dominance Feels Different to Anything Else

Red Bull has had a devastating start to the season, with first place finishes in the first two races and differences with the next best teams that were equally overwhelming for them, with a difference of 25 seconds with respect to Ferrari in Bahrain and a difference of 18 seconds compared to Ferrari in Bahrain. Gap Ferrari in Jeda with a safety car now we have seen

dominance

many times before in Formula 1 Schumaker in Ferrari vetal in Red Bull and Hamilton in Mercedes, but seeing this team, especially in 2023 and now in 2024, something

feels

very

different

and even more sinister. compared to the others, so in this video I wanted to look at some things that I think set Red Bull apart from other eras of

dominance

and now in this video I'm not necessarily going to focus on the number of wins or polls. positions because I think that depends more on how long you run and how long your team remains dominant.

To be honest, we will only have an answer once Red Bull and Max stop winning. I'm not going to compare it either. the McLaren period of dominance in the 80s and the Williams period of dominance in the 90s because in both circumstances three or more drivers won championships for those teams in the span of a decade, so it's not exactly the same as He is a combination of driver and team than the others when we look at Michael's Ferrari era in terms of the dynamics between teams and the gap in relation to his teammate. I think this is the one that most closely resembles what we are seeing right now from Max and Red Ball, however the key difference is that the way Shuma and Vapen won races was very

different

and dictated by their cars in early In the 2000s, not only did we have refueling but we also had a tire wall with Bridgestone basically designing their tires entirely to suit Ferrari, this was one of the reasons Schuma became known for his style racing.

Sprint because, overall, the Michelin was the best qualifying tire, while the Bridgestone was the best race tire. This is also partly why there is actually a discrepancy between Michael's total number of wins. and also his number of pole positions in qualifying was never his or the car's greatest strength at that time, since overtaking in the race was so difficult. Ferrari in races in which Michael did not start in pole position was always able to make very intelligent strategic decisions. In particular, Michael's greatest strength was being able to make consistent qualifying-style laps during the stins, which allowed him to create gaps once he got into clear air and jump onto cars that had just pitted before him, or create enough space to be able to do an extra. stopping on a compensation strategy and still catch and pass them with a Superior Tire advantage, which is why, although on paper Max's dominance against his teammate and his competition probably looks more like idiots because there's no refueling or multiple Tire suppliers like the way the races run now are very different than they did back then, even if the outcome looks exactly the same as Michael's.

I don't think ranking is Max's biggest strength. I have said this for several years and for me it is currently the absolute. The fastest driver on a lap, but since the pellis are so sensitive to overdrive and overheating, for me Max's biggest strength is his racing ability and tire management, even when Max doesn't qualify on the front row , which, admittedly, is not very frequent, he is always able to do it. Play patiently and wait for your opponent to run out of tires before the first round of pit stops or force your opponents to try to pit early, at which point Red Bull's superior tire strategy and excellent stops pit stops generally allow Max to still get track position, unlike Schumacker, the only time Max actually makes more pit stops than anyone

else

is to try to get the point for fastest lap and even in that scenario, the Max's tire handling skills usually mean he always has TI Life in hand at the end of the race and once the tracks get tough and the fuel burns off, he can usually get the fastest lap anyway without needing to go in. in the pits and then let's compare Red Bull to Red Bull and as much as Michael's era probably resembled Max's, Seb's highest ERA and dominance probably looks the least like Max's now, having Having said that, although this was almost 15 years ago, there is still a lot of the same Red Bull DNA uniting the two in terms of management and car design, there is still a lot of the same people there and more than

anything

else

even in Back then Red Bull was always the best team operationally, breaking the pit stop record twice in one season in 2013, apart from that however, not only was Max very different, but also the way in which the seasons developed.

It was also very different, as 2010 and 2012 were titles that went all the way to the deciders, and although 2013 was statistically Seb's most iconic season, winning nine races in a row, I would actually say that 2011 was more representative of the driver than him. He wasn't really like Max. I think the basis of Seb's dominance was his qualifying pace in 2011 during a 19-race season. Seb was in the polls 15 times, which even though we now have over 20 races in a season is still a record that stands. This day, Seb's whole philosophy was to take more risks and dominate qualifying and then use the pole position in the race to break the DRS as soon as possible, even if it meant using the tires hard, which could compromise him later in the race. that stint. 2011 was the first season with DRS so all the drivers were still learning how to best use it to their advantage and there is no doubt that in that era Vettle and Hamilton were by far the best and most consistent qualifiers.

However, I think the biggest difference. was the quality and mentality of the Formula 1 drivers, there now seems to be much more universal recognition among younger drivers that Max is the best Formula 1 driver and people like Lando Norris even say as much in recent interviews, as well as Max. We only have two other world champions who are now the oldest drivers on the grid: Hamilton and Alonzo; however, during the veto rule we had multiple already successful and established world champions, all in their prime, like Vettle Hamilton Alonzo Button and Renan back then, whether you think this. Right or wrong, the other drivers did not have the same universal recognition that Seb was better than all of them even though he dominated and there was much more stigma that it was actually Adrien Nei who was winning all those titles instead of Seb, The quality of the competition that Seb had to face and also the fact that more teams had competitive cars meant that there were many more drivers winning races, even if fighting for the championship was unlikely and now you have to admit that the reason why The drivers right now are not as accomplished as the drivers Seb had to face because most of them have barely had a car capable of winning a race, much less a championship.

I think that's what led the drivers to be more conservative in the way they talk about themselves compared to Max and while I understand that I just hope that mentally it's not affecting the driver psychologically because I can say with certainty that when Lewis and Fernando were watching Seb win all those championships, at no point did they think he was a better driver than them, we have Lewis at Mercedes and now Lewis dominated for so long that I think you can actually divide his dominance into two phases before after Nico Rosberg retired at the end of 2016 and then after Rosberg retired from 2017 during the first. 3 years into the hybrid era, when Mercedes had a car that was as dominant as the Red Bull at the moment, the obvious difference is that we had two drivers fighting for wins, which meant Wal fans were still complaining about knowing exactly what car and what equipment. was going to win every single race, it wasn't like it is now in the sense that the identity of which teammate was going to win still provided a certain level of intrigue with the two genuine title battles in 2014 and 2016 from 2017 onwards I think.

Mercedes really only had one dominant bull R level car in 2020 and even then, with all the crazy things happening on the track. That season could be one of the most quote-unquote dominant seasons in F1 history after the wider cars were introduced in 2017. While Lewis and Mercedes were metronomic in winning championships, Ferrari had now eroded almost by completed the Mercedes Advantage power unit in terms of performance and the other teams were now winning races every season with drivers like Vettle Reikenen, Ricardo Vapen and Lir A War as well. What separates Red Bull's current effectiveness from all the others is the fact that Stephano Demar Point Blank came out and said that Formula 1 and the FIA ​​are not going to intervene with any rule changes that could stop Red Bull.

This is something that the other teams had to fight basically every two years when Ferrari dominated in 2002, the points system was changed so that now a win was not as valuable as it was before and the qualifying system also changed when Ferrari dominated again in 2004, the FIA ​​introduced tie rules specifically aimed at stopping Ferrari for 2015, when Red Bull began to dominate with Vettle in 2010 and especially in 2011, where Adrianne's burst diffuser cars that specific innovation was banned for 2012, when Mercedes began to dominate in 2014 even though there was initially an engine development freeze for all teams to help them save money.

The other power units were so bad that the FIA ​​later reversed that freeze to try to help the other teams catch up when Mercedes continued to dominate. New changes were introduced in the AO. in 2017, just 3 years into a new AO cycle again intended to unsettle Mercedes when Mercedes is dominated again in 2020, although the FIA ​​cited concerns from Tire over the changes made in 2021, the way they decided to reduce the speed of cars taking Removing part of the floor at the rear of the car specifically targeted cars with lower camber and longer wheelbases, as those cars could have additional floor space for downforce and the only two teams Those who executed that concept were Mercedes and Aston Martin and now these changes and many many others, whether fair or not, which has been a highly debated topic for decades, were made with the intention of preventing one team and specifically one driver from dominating. the sport.

More dominance means less entertainment, which means less casual viewers, which means less money. from TV companies and sponsors wanting to invest in Formula 1, given Dominic Harley's firm stance that he won't do any of that to stop Red Bull, means that compared to before there is less pressure on the team and also about their drivers because We can be sure that the advantage they have now is assured until at least 2026 and now the last factor that makes this era of dominance unique compared to all others is one that I have not yet specifically mentioned and that This is reliability when Schumaker was dominant, although at the time Ferrari was setting new standards for reliability, both drivers still had many failures and that was during a time when each team had multiple engines for each race in the early 2000s instead of just four for the entire season during the veterans' dominance, while Renault engine performance was good, reliability was always known as its biggest weakness with numerous failures almost costing Vetal the title in 2012, even again for Mercedes, although at the time they were relatively reliable compared to the competition. they still had plenty of faults that cost them wins and in the eyes of Leis Hamilton, the various engine problems and grid penalties he had throughout 2016 likely cost him a world championship, although in 2022 to start this rules cycle Red Bull did have a couple of problems with its two drivers since the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix, where Checo suffered a gearbox problem.

Neither driver has had a single reliability-related race in almost 2 years. Now imagine telling that statistic to Char Clair when you combine Max V's personnel and driving as well. like anyone has done in the history of Formula 1 with all those other external factors that separate their dominance from everyone else's, like the lack of variables like refueling with clothing, war, the lack of team competition, the lack of competitive machinery from othersunprecedented equipment and levels of reliability, all those things come together and create an era that at this point is something I don't think Formula 1 has really seen before.

Domination is nothing new in Formula 1, it has happened before and it will happen again, but the way Que Maxus Dappen Sergio Pérez and the entire Red Bull team are dominating right now is unprecedented. Well, there you have it. If you enjoyed this video and want to support the channel, don't forget to subscribe, that would be greatly appreciated. See you next time oh