Seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton can arguably relate to how reigning World Champion Max Verstappen is currently feeling, given that the Dutchman is very much the dominant figure in Formula 1 currently.
With eight wins from the opening 10 races, the two-time World Champion is unbeatable, to the extent where he already boasts a 99-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship.
Verstappen should claim a third consecutive title this season relatively easily, especially after he became just the fifth driver in the history of the sport to win six races in a row.
The Red Bull driver accomplished this last weekend at the British Grand Prix, where Hamilton finished third.
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Hamilton has experienced Verstappen’s sort of dominance before, with four of his seven titles having been won by more than 60 points.
Interestingly, Hamilton has admitted that when he was virtually untouchable, like Verstappen is now, he didn’t find racing “fulfilling”.
The Briton believes his “best years” were the ones where he was “fighting” with the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari.
Hamilton is keen for something to be done by the FIA and F1 to stop a single team from dominating, in the way that Mercedes and Red Bull have done in recent years.
“For a long, long time within our sport, there’s always large chunks of dominance,” Hamilton told the Chequered Flag podcast.
“I had it and I was really, really fortunate to have it with this team, Michael [Schumacher] had it, Sebastian [Vettel] had it and now it’s Max’s period.
“There’s no telling how long that will be or whether we get the car on the right track and can fight them next year or if Ferrari can, or whether it will be us next or Ferrari next or Red Bull next.
“That’s why I’ve been saying just recently, like, even when we were dominant, the best years were when we were fighting, when we had close battles with Red Bull or we had a close battle with Ferrari.
“On some of the other times where the gap was a little bit bigger. That wasn’t really the most fulfilling period of time. But it’s nothing we can do about it, we just did a better job. And that’s where Max is.
“Ultimately, him and his team have just done a better job than everybody else, and you cannot take it away from them.
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“But as a sport, we have to work, we have to have a conversation about how we can set it up to be better for the future, so we have tighter races where the pack is closer, and we have close battles between Red Bull and Ferrari and Mercedes Aston Martin that would be epic.
“That’s my dream because that’s when I grew up racing karts, it was wheel to wheel close battling.
“I don’t dream of having a dominant period ever again, in my for myself, like winning multiple championships in a row, but the hope is that you would be in battle at least.”