Max Verstappen admits he hopes more sides “can get together” to challenge Red Bull consistently and provide a multiple-team title fight again in Formula 1.
The reigning World Champion has encountered both sides of winning a championship in his two title successes to date, having prevailed against Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes in a pulsating title contest in the final round of 2021.
Then after battling Ferrari early last year, Red Bull accelerated away in the second half to comfortably wrap up both championships before the end of the season.
Red Bull’s competitive advantage has further extended this season, with the Austrian outfit winning all eight races in 2023 so far.
Verstappen, who has won six of those to open up a 69-point advantage in the standings, asserts he doesn’t mind which manner success comes in but does acknowledge it would be good for the sport to have more teams capable of scoring wins at the front.
“I think it’s nice sometimes to have good competition, honestly like I enjoyed 2021, but I also enjoyed the way 2022 went,” he summarised.
“Of course, at the beginning we had some reliability issues, the car was a bit heavy but at one point the car was quite dominant at the end so I don’t know.
“I think for the sport in general and I understand of course if only one team is dominating, we’ve seen it also with Mercedes, seen it with Ferrari in the past, seen it with Red Bull in the past.
“So, I think for sure I hope that more teams can get together then at least it means if you have a little issue or whatever or you can’t get the set-up fully at 100% that there is another team to win for sure.”
Verstappen has regularly suggested that he could opt to retire at the end of his current contract which runs until the end of 2028.
However, the 25-year-old has dismissed the notion that he struggles to find motivation without the current threat of opposition coming from rival teams each weekend.
“Well, for me it’s probably even more motivation like that because you know you have a winning car,” he said.
“When you sometimes come to weekends where you’re maybe P5 or whatever is the best – that’s still very good right – probably less motivating than when you come to a race and you know that you can win.”
Prior to Red Bull enjoying its second streak of success in F1, Mercedes had been the dominant force of the V6 turbo-hybrid engine era, winning an unprecedented eight consecutive Constructors’ titles.
Meanwhile, Red Bull endured a somewhat barren spell, winning only 17 races between 2014-20 compared to the 25 it has won since the regulations were overhauled last year.
Verstappen argues Red Bull’s competitors shouldn’t lobby the FIA about a rule change to stem its current dominance, arguing it’s up to the chasing pack to catch up.
Asked if he ever attempted to find ways to stop Mercedes’ winning run by complaining to the sport’s governing body, Verstappen said: “No, because it’s all about hard work and I appreciated what they were doing, it was super impressive at the time, I never felt like you had to stop that or anything.
“It was all about trying to work harder and try to catch up.”
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