Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time Formula One world champion, thinks the sport must “do better”. To generate closer competition amid concerns that Red Bull’s dominance could lead to boredom.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, the defending champion, leads the driver standings after sharing the first four races with teammate Sergio Perez.
When the drivers arrived for Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix, they were open about how far ahead Red Bull’s cars were of the rest of the field, including Ferrari.
On Wednesday, Hamilton was asked if there was a risk of American fans losing interest in Formula One. Due to the overwhelming dominance of one team. And the Mercedes driver said that while he still found the sport exciting, he understood the worries.
“It’s not boring for me,” he explained. “I’m working hard every day to come back to the front. So, from my perspective, it’s far from boring. But, as a racing fan, I can understand.
“Because there isn’t as much competition as they may be used to with the NFL and NBA right now.” That is not my fault. I mean, as a sport, I believe we can do better.
“They’ve already attempted to bring the teams closer together, but it never seems to work.” All I can say is that we’re doing all we can to close it down and get back to work. Make it more exciting for them.”
Red Bull has won three of the four races this season, with Hamilton’s second-place finish in Australia being the lone exception.
George Russell, Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate, urged that people focus on the battle between the best of the rest rather than the fight for the victory.
“I think the competition we’ve got at the moment with Ferrari and Aston Martin. Every race we go to, the pace is really close between us in qualifying and the pace is really close in the race,” he remarked.
“If that were a race for the championship, it would probably be one of the most exciting seasons we’ve seen in a long, long time. And it’s obviously just a shame that there are two more cars well ahead.” So disregard those two and just watch from (position) P3. It could be a little more fascinating.”
But Russell admitted the issue was real and difficult for Formula One to address.