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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Daniel Moxon

Red Bull dominance "ruining F1" is a myth made by fans who hate that they are winning

Another dominant Red Bull display at the Miami Grand Prix led to more of the same baseless assertions about the effect their success is having on the sport.

Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez have, between them, won all five races so far this year. And this has made Formula 1 a lot less enjoyable for some, who then log into their social media accounts to moan about it.

The same claim they all seem to make is that Red Bull's dominance is off-putting for the audience and so F1 will be losing fans as a result. And there is no doubt that healthy competition certainly improves the product – the more teams capable of winning races and championships, the better.

But a lot of these people don't want to face the simple truth about the situation – many of them just hate that Red Bull are the ones winning right now.

The Milton Keynes outfit has always been a divisive team and, to an extent, that's just the way Red Bull like it. From the moment they entered the sport they wanted to be disruptive and do things differently. And, most of all, to win.

There are perfectly understandable reasons why some fans don't like them. Their cost cap breach certainly did then no favours in that regard. And the personalities of key figures such as Verstappen and team principal Christian Horner are not to everyone's taste.

But to assert that Red Bull's extraordinary success this season will be bad for the sport in the long term is nothing more than a coping mechanism for those who support rival teams. Because F1 history tells us that it's common for one team to be lording it over the rest.

Red Bull are divisive, as is their team principal Christian Horner (Getty Images)

After all, up until last year, Mercedes were on an eight-year winning streak in the constructors' championship while Lewis Hamilton won six of the seven drivers' titles on offer between 2014 and 2020.

And Silver Arrows chief Toto Wolff has even said himself, on many occasions, that it is up to Red Bull's rivals to figure out how to catch them. His most recent message was: "We either have to do a better job all of us together to catch them or change the regulations – and I don't think we should be doing the second one."

Did Mercedes' long-running success have an adverse effect on the sport's popularity? No. As proven by its huge new fanbase created by, among other things, the Drive to Survive programme, the sport's most attractive quality is not who wins on track, but the amount of access given off it.

Years of Mercedes dominance with Lewis Hamilton didn't damage F1, so why should it happen when Red Bull are winning? (Getty Images)

Few other sports, if any, have allowed the media and fans alike to get so up close and personal with the stars of the show. This goes not only for the Netflix programme, but also for Liberty Media's relaxation of previously strict social media rules – a genius move which hasn't been given the props it deserves.

Red Bull dominating proceedings at the front of the grid isn't going to change how people feel about their favourite drivers. Admittedly, the last two races in Baku and Miami were largely dull affairs, but that has more to do with the shortened DRS zones which made overtaking much harder.

Ironically, if conspiracy theories are to be believed, that move from the FIA to alter the DRS zones was made in a bid to curb Red Bull's advantage. So, in that case, an attempt by the governing body to stop the team's dominance actually contributed to a worse product for the fans.

F1 still has plenty of problems to fix and moves to make to better capitalise on its newfound global popularity. But anyone who points at a successful Red Bull team and claims they are the boogeyman responsible for all the sport's ills is just kidding themselves.

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