Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has dismissed the idea that new fans are being put off by the early dominance Red Bull has shown early in this season.
Red Bull managed to win all three races of the season prior to the four-week break, with reigning World Champion Max Verstappen taking victory in Bahrain and Australia, while team-mate Sergio Perez won in Saudi Arabia.
The Austrian team also managed to start from pole position at all three races.
With Red Bull’s dominance, fear has arisen that new fans, many who have been brought in by the success of Netflix’s Drive to Survive, are losing interest in the sport.
But Domenicali isn’t worried and congratulates the team on their current form.
“First of all, if a team is faster than the others, congratulations, they did a better job than the others,” he said.
He also addressed the possibility of the FIA stepping in to halt Red Bull’s current form.
“It’s the duty of FIA as the regulator to make sure that they check the compliance of the car with the regulations.
“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.”
In fact, Domenicali thinks that long-term fans are more likely to be put off by single-team dominance than the new fans are.
“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.
“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.”
Domenicali also speculates that Red Bull’s penalty for the cost cap breach will allow other teams to catch up.
“For sure we see in the first three races Red Bull was very, very competitive,” he 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.”
Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei also commented on Red Bull’s current form, as well as last year’s regulation overhaul: “The history of F1 is that there have been teams that had to run, Red Bull had a run, Mercedes had a long run,” he said.
“But you look behind that we’re actually seeing more overtaking and more competition than ever.
“I think we can look statistically there has been more overtaking this year than in prior years. And I think you’ll see more of that.
“So there is excitement on the track. And as Stefano rightly points out, it’s three races, we’ll see how the year goes.”
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