Reigning World Champion Max Verstappen has admitted that he does actually understand why some fans are getting a “bit bored” this season, due to Red Bull having won every race.
Verstappen extended Red Bull’s winning streak last weekend at the Canadian Grand Prix, to claim the 41st victory of his Formula 1 career.
The win saw him move level with three-time World Champion Ayrton Senna on the all-time winners list, whilst it also saw him extend his lead in the standings to 69 points.
If that wasn’t enough, Verstappen’s victory was Red Bull’s 100th in F1, with their first having come courtesy of Sebastian Vettel in 2009.
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Based on Red Bull’s current form, it won’t be long until they reach 150, due to the Austrians being so dominant in the current era of the sport.
Whilst the likes of Aston Martin and Mercedes are slowly catching Red Bull, it doesn’t look likely that they’ll be beaten until the closing stages of the year, with many believing that the Austrians could win every race in 2023.
This would likely leave fans disappointed; however, Verstappen has noted that despite the current boredom that some are experiencing, the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari have also previously enjoyed very dominant spells.
“It’s nice sometimes to have good competition,” Verstappen said at the Canadian GP.
“Honestly, I enjoyed of course ’21 but I also enjoyed the way ’22 went. Of course, in the beginning we had some reliability issues, the car was a bit heavy, but at one point the car was also really quite dominant at the end.”
“I understand of course people get a bit bored if only one team is dominating. We’ve seen it also at Mercedes, we’ve seen it with Ferrari in the past, we’ve seen it with Red Bull in the past.
“So for sure I hope that more teams can get it together, then at least even if you have a little issue or whatever or you can’t get the set-up fully in 100% then there’s another team to win.”
Verstappen used Mercedes’ recent dominant period as an example, with the Silver Arrows having won the Constructors’ Championship for eight consecutive seasons.
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The Dutchman labelled what Mercedes did during 2014-2021 as “super-impressive”, whilst it also forced other teams to “work harder” to reduce the gap, something which is currently happening.
“It’s all about hard work and I appreciated what they were doing,” Verstappen insisted.
“It was super-impressive at the time, so I never really felt like you had to stop that or anything. It was all about just trying to work harder and try to catch up.”