Formula 1 CEO and president Stefano Domenicali isn’t concerned about Red Bull’s current dominance, with the Italian believing that not only will they be caught come the end of the year, but that actually their strong performances aren’t pushing away new fans.
The pinnacle of motorsport is certainly booming right now, with more viewers tuning in to watch the racing than ever before.
Netflix docuseries ‘Drive to Survive’ has played a huge part in this, with it having attracted millions of fans across the globe.
The sport has grown rapidly in North America in particular, with it being part of the reason why America now has three races on the calendar.
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With that in mind, Domenicali isn’t concerned about Red Bull’s dominance, with him instead congratulating them for doing a “better job” than everyone else.
“First of all, if a team is faster than the others, congratulations, they did a better job than the others,” he said.
Domenicali also added that the FIA don’t have any plans on introducing any new regulations to slow down the Austrians, with the Italian believing the field will naturally get closer.
“It’s the duty of FIA as the regulator to make sure that they check the compliance of the car with the regulations,” Domenicali added.
“If you look at the others, the other teams are very close, very, very close. I’m very confident that with the budget cap, the situation will evolve in the best way for the better competition.
Even if Red Bull’s opponents aren’t able to catch the Milton Keynes-based team, Domenicali seemingly still isn’t concerned, with the Italian revealing that their dominance “is not so relevant” currently in regard to the continued growth of F1.
“But on the other hand, there is one thing that is interesting to see, in the new markets, where the new audience is coming in, that is not a really important factor,” he said.
“It’s more let’s say for the avid fans that if you see a car that is dominant, that’s creating a level of less interest. For the new markets, for the new fans that are coming to the business, this is not really very important.
“And for us, it’s important because we want to make sure there is a great competition in the ecosystem.
“But I would say if I look today, in the markets where we are growing, this factor is not so relevant as you think. And this is, in a way, very interesting to share. But that’s the truth.”
Whether Red Bull’s budget cap penalty allows the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes to close will certainly be interesting come the end of the season and will likely be watched closely by the FIA.
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If Red Bull aren’t caught by the end of the year then the FIA will likely face criticism for having not punished the Austrians hard enough, after they breached the 2021 cap.
“For sure we see in the first three races Red Bull was very, very competitive,” Domenicali said. “I’m expecting the others to catch up.
“We need to wait and see the effect of the penalty that they had last year with the wind tunnel reduction. The championship is very long. And I think we’re going to have good surprises before the end.”