F1 | Red Bull-Verstappen supremacy, Vettel: “It's normal for sport to undergo phases of domination”

2024 also opened in the name of Red Bull and Max Verstappen. The Dutchman started the new season as well as he could, achieving four victories in the first five events. The only failure was represented by the Melbourne event, where the three-time world champion had to retire due to a brake problem.

Discussing the supremacy shown on the track by Red Bull and its standard bearer, Sebastian Vettel underlined that Formula 1, like other sports, thrives on cycles. As indeed happened to Vettel himself with the Milton Keynes team between the four-year period 2010-13. At the time, the former Red Bull and Ferrari driver did not spare Verstappen compliments for the driving excellence he has shown on the track so far.

“What if this dominance can lead to a drop in viewership? From a competitive point of view it is normal – declared Vettel in a recent interview with talkSPORT – There were always phases in which a certain team or driver dominated the sport. You could argue the same thing about other sports, about the same football team that wins the Premier League, especially Manchester City. This is boring if you search for five, six, seven or even ten different teams that have won in the last ten years. It always depends on the angle from which you look at things, what I want to highlight is Max's perfection and excellence in this moment."

The German then added: “Surely as a spectator you would hope for more overtaking and more drivers racing close together, but Max is just a little further ahead. I think it's normal for sport to undergo different phases of domination."

The four-time world champion, continuing to talk about Verstappen, said: “At the moment Max is driving at a better level than probably all the other drivers, furthermore the team around him is giving him all the tools to work with. You have to accept it, take away hat because he's better than everyone else right now."