Lewis Hamilton claims F1 chiefs have ‘failed’ to make the sport entertaining
03/10/2022 15:28
Sir Lewis Hamilton believes the huge rule changes for the 2022 Formula 1 season have ‘failed’ to have the desired effect given how Max Verstappen has cruised to the title.
Verstappen is very likely to seal his second championship at this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, with four races of the season still to run after that.
For 2022, F1 and the FIA introduced the biggest shake up of the regulations in years, with a much stricter budget cap aimed at bunching up the grid and new car designs that promoted overtaking.
While the racing has for the most part been an improvement over recent seasons, this campaign has been far less competitive, with only two teams, Red Bull and Ferrari, taking victories in the 17 grand prix so far.
Furthermore, on only one occasion has a driver from outside Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes finished on the podium, namely McLaren’s Lando Norris who did so at Imola back in April.
For comparison, in 2021 four teams managed to win a race, while a staggering 13 drivers across eight teams finished on the podium at least once.
At last weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, Hamilton was asked if he felt the rule changes had in any way achieved their goal of levelling the playing field.
‘Yeah, they’re supposed to do that, but it’s not achieved what it was supposed to achieve, so yeah, we failed in that,’ the Mercedes driver told Sky Sports.
‘But when you fail once you try again and fail a second time and continue to try, so I hope more changes are made to try and bring all the teams closer and create better quality throughout the racing space.
‘It’s my hope that we are all closer so we can have better racing and more overtaking. Red Bull have walked away with it this year. They have done a great job.’
A tighter budget cap and further changes are set to be introduced for 2023, where Hamilton will hope to bid for a record eighth title.
While Red Bull and Ferrari have been too quick for the other teams this year, a potentially thrilling title fight failed to materialise after the Scuderia and their drivers made numerous blunders in the first half of the season, and after the summer break Red Bull have had the clear pace advantage.
Last week, Hamilton expressed his disappointment for the fans that the title race was over so soon, having expressed a similar sentiment during his years of domination.
‘I feel for the fans because that’s for everyone and even for us, last year, going right down to the wire, that was intense for everybody,’ the 37-year-old said.
‘So, it’s never great when the season finishes early, even when I’ve experienced having it finish early, in places like Mexico. For you as the one individual it’s great, but for the actual sport is not spectacular.
‘So, I’m really grateful to have had it like 2008, right down to the last 17 seconds, and obviously last year pretty much the same thing. So yeah, let’s hope for the future that it’s a bit better.’
MORE : F1 budget cap: Why could Red Bull and Max Verstappen be disqualified?
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