The Max Verstappen Dilemma 

Can anyone stop Max Verstappen? His rear right brakes: Bonjur

Emotional growth is realising the Vettel era was the most competitive period in recent memory.

When you watch Formula1, you watch it for everything, not just the race winner. Team development, team decline, up and coming rookies, old vets, new technology, one off stand in drives, race craft, mid field fights, drivers trying to keep their seats, team principle eras etc etc It goes on and on. This season: - the decline of the once mighty Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes - Perez trying to keep his seat - Alpine falling apart - Williams trying to rebuild as a team - Sainz not giving a shit and kicking ass to get a race seat

The hypocrisy from F1 media who never groaned and questioned Hamiltons dominance but now always are on Verstappens case is evident, we just want consistency.

The worst bit is not the actual domination. Its the fact we dont see the exciting part of max that can help us appreciate his talent in an entertaining way: we never see him racing anyone when hes 20 seconds down the road

Max is damn fast, but it is his consistency and teams consistency, that makes it insane

"large portion of fans are unhappy with domination" - I would say mostly British fans. It was too much for me when you showed article from the Guardian. True fans of the sport can recognize greatness and enjoy watching it anytime.

In 2017 I think Mercedes didn't want a driver like Verstappen because they'd just gone through three years of their drivers at each others throats and Bottas was signed to be more "compliant".

What I personally got out of Australia where MAX DNF'ed is that Max is merely a symptom and not the actual problem. After a handful of interesting laps, what we got was largely the same as any Max-dominated race, with Sainz up front instead. I am not smart enough to figure it out but there must be a problem with the cars and the regulations that leads to pretty boring racing nowadays. If the drivers can't constantly get within DRS, nothing happens and they just drive around the track with largely unchanging gaps for 50 laps.

We’re currently in the Verstappen era it is what it is 🤷🏽‍♂️

I remember when Seb was dominating the sport, Lewis said it is bad for the sport and then went to make the sport boring for 7 years. Max came like a saviour but is currently the new Hamilton. It’s just that the regulations never end up making an equal playing field.

0:38 No, Einstein never said that. Its one of the most misattributed quotes of all time. It comes from a book written in 1983, long after Einstein died.

F1 is fundamentally a sport of domination

Lol, Revell's videos always curses drivers in the video with vodoo magic so that the opposite thing happens. He recorded this and while he was editing, Max DNF'd in Australia. He posted the Kimi video and the kid qualified P18 then crashed in Australia, he made a video of De Vries belonging in F1 and dude got ejected into the sun before half a season lmao. We just need Revell to make a Max video every race weekend to prevent RB and Max from securing the championship ;)

Why does everybody forget the 7 years that Mercedes won every week and now they cry

You are very young to remember Michael Schumacher’s dominance. The sport is like this, and always will be. But Verstappen’s dominance is different. In Schumacher era, we had the different brand tires. In Vettel’s era, we han Ferrar. In Lewis Hamilton’s era, we had Nico. But in Verstappen era, there’s nothing that can bring uncertainty. Only hope to reach fast 2025 new regulations, as Alonso did in Renault vs. Schumacher, or Verstappen in RB vs. Lewis.

Look as much as a Hamilton fan I am and as much as this Verstappen domination is too much, people can't blame him. Blame the other teams and engineers for not coming up with a machine that can put an end to that dominance.

Nobody: Max Verstappen: Tries to do a 1988 McLaren every year since 2022

As a Max fan, I am actually glad he is dominating other wise doubts would never go away as if deserved 2021 title or not. It will end like all the others ended, it comes to other teams like Ferrarri and Mercedes to up their game not for Redbull to downgrade theirs.

Hot take: the rest of the race beyond Verstappen has been great for the past two years and a lot of people aren't appreciating that enough.

2 important things. 1 the grid is already very close. Closer than many seasons. Only the overtaking is bad. 2 Most of the people who find the races boring with max only watch for the winner. If you look further in the field there is a lot of entertainment going on there. (caviat sadly not every race)

During the Vettel domination, 2012 went down to the wire and had 7 different winners from the first 7 races. Hasn't been a better season since.

I have an enormous amount of respect for Max himself. The real problem with F1 as a racing series is the presence of so many low tier teams. Attempts at leveling the field with budget caps have been completely ridiculous. There has to be another way to make midfield teams more competitive, like Williams or Benetton were back in the day. I'm absolutely sure drivers like Leclerc could challenge Max if there was more competition overall.

It says a lot that in the first race of this season George Russel said "The rest of us are racing for second to Max" tells you all that needs to be said

Me patiently waiting for Oscar piastri’s domination

Going from 2021, which was insane, to having a bit of hope at the start of 2022, to then the most dominant 2 years in F1 history is quite a big jump that makes it feel even worse

Where were all these content creators when Lewis Hamilton was winning race after race? When Mercedes dominated for 8 years in a row?

Honestly it's only been 2 years so far (I don't count 2021 as a "domination year" since that was literally a fight till the very end) so whenever I'm getting slightly bored I think back to the Hamilton era that lasted way longer (with a short break in the form of 2016) and then suddenly what we have right now ain't looking so bad anymore since at least it's someone else than Ham and Merc. Granted unless 26 shakes some things up it's gonna get a bit stale to say the least, but during the Merc era I've learned to focus on and appreciate the mid and even back field way more and those are still very much entertaining to watch (when the TV directors remember that they exists).

There has always been dominance. Schumi. Hamilton. Its not verstappens fault that the cars are shite . Its almost impossible to overtake in over half the corners of every track

i think the "problem" comes from that 20-21 season. It was so good watching lewis vs max that now everything else feels like nothing

The thing is, I think the casual fans are actually the ones who like domination. A lot of them are the ones who latch onto whoever is the most dominant driver, and follow them until someone replaces them. You know the ones that were Schumacher fans, became Alonso fans, then Vettel fans, Hamilton fans and are now Verstappen fans. Mate of mine used to call it Manchester United syndrome, because you had that section of football fans who always fans of whatever footy team was dominant at the time (and at that point in time it was Man U). I have worked in F1 retail on and off over the last 25 years or so, and have seen various trends. I was there during the Schuey/Ferrari dominance, and towards the end of it even die hard Schuey and Ferrari fans were getting bored, and sale started drying up on their merch. Right now, despite the Max dominance, there is a much wider spread of "loyal" fanbases, and it amazes you how much support some drivers have. Lando, Lewis, Charles, Fernando and Max are easily the ones with the biggest followings, but Carlos has seen a massive upswing since last year, and that only increased when Ferrari announced he was out of a drive next year. Albon is also a decent seller. I would actually go as far to say that since the start of this century, these last few seasons have had the biggest spread of fanbases rather than only one or two drivers dominating merch sales. I don't think for a second dominance is driving fans away, I just think it gives people something to moan about on social media.

Wish Vettel was given as much respect and benefit of doubt as Verstappen. But back then the narrative was just “he has the best car.”

I think one reason a lot of people don’t like this era of domination from Max is the fact there is literally no competition what so ever from the rest of the field. In the ‘Hamilton Era’, at least there was some what of competition with the likes of Rosberg, Vettel and of course Verstappen himself, compared to the last couple years where Max has been winning 15 or 20 seconds ahead of everyone, even his own teammate.

Max dominance is no different to Schumi making the entire grid look like clowns, Vettel winning by half a minute or Hamilton taking the piss out of the hybrid era. It's just the influx of DtS idiots who started watching in 2021 and think every season is like that when it very much isn't.

Levels of Achievement in Motorsport: Lvl 1: Finish a race Lvl 2: Acquire points Lvl 3: Finish on the podium Lvl 4: Win a race Lvl 5: Get a Grand Slam Lvl 6: Win the Driver's Championship Lvl 7: Do it multiple times Lvl 8: Ruin the sport < Max is here

People are so quick to forget the several years of merc dominance in the hybrid era. That was apparently fine but this isn't? lol.

People were definitely saying this when it was Lewis and Merc winning damn near every week. Then F1 changed the regs, claiming they would allow for closer racing, but instead it only resulted in one team creating a decent car and then the rest struggling to cope with the changes. FIA have proven they either have no idea how to fix the problem or have no real desire to.

I think one of the main things which are impacting closer racing is regular regulation changes in F1. By the time a team catches the front team F1 changes its regulations it happened in 2021 and can see it happening again in 2025

We went from the hamilton era straight into the verstappen era. What I don't understand is It was apathy during hamilton Now it's anger during verstappen? What's the difference between it all, lmao

There is no evidence at all of Einstein saying that and it's actually the definition of PRACTICE.

In 2022 max verstappen won the world championship in Japan, maybe he can still do that this year 😭😭

F1 peaked from 2005-2012 5 champions, 5 teams.

The thing is that Hamilton was a dominate driver, because he had an amazing car, and Verstappen also has a dominate car, but is a crazy good driver.

It's just English speaking media hating. That's all. They think Sir Hamilton is owed another title.

Verstappen's dominance brings more screen time to the teams at the back. More screen time = more sponsors = more money towards car development. And now with the cost cap limiting rich teams it'll make Alpine/Haas/Williams/McLaren even more competitive in 2026 (+we'll have Audi and their VW money).

We complain about Max's domination, we complain about the sprint race, we complain about Pirelli, we complain about the Strolls... We complain about everything, and yet we tuned it to watch F1 every time it's on. So maybe Max or any of those other things are not the problem. Maybe something else is the problem.

What did we learn from Australia? If Verstappen doesn't win, it's a boring race. At least the fight for second is usually good.

those that complain now never complained about Lewis winning everything for 7 of 8 years

8:33 “F1 fans are so fickle” Indeed Josh

Its cycle that happens every 3-6 years, it was boring when Schumacher was winning everything same with Vettel same with Hamilton, now Verstappen, everyone gets bored, the booing starts then the hating/laughing when anything goes wrong for that driver.

This same dominance occured in Golf with Tiger Woods and in boxing with Muhamed Ali. Why is the Formula 1 world so upset when it happens in their sport?

My two very unimportant cents: I think the utter atrocious atmosphere around F1 at the moment. is not solely due to Max's domination. Don't get me wrong, a massive factor, but not the only one. Whilst the cars have gotten closer, they are often stuck in DRS trains so often that it doesn't make a difference, coupled with the cars just genuinely looking lethargic and slow, makes "the spectacle" nowhere near as entertaining. My next point is also probably a hot take, but I believe the cost cap has actually done more to hurt the sport than help it. Drivers are more worried to go for overtakes, because in the event of a crash, that's a part of the budget gone, again making the racing worse. Not to mention, it means that teams who have a lot of money (Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, maybe Aston Martin) can't actually spend the required money to catch up to Red Bull throughout the season. This results in domination. Like Josh said, domination isn't uncommon in F1. But of THIS scale, is incredible. Max isn't even being challenged by his teammate. This all coalesces into a 2023 season that had a handful of good races in a TWENTY-TWO race season. And, Australia excluded, looks like 2024 is going to be a repeat of that. Not to mention the off-track ugliness.

Fun fact, theres actually no evidence supporting that Einstein ever said "insanity is doing something over and over again, expecting a different result." People just assumed he did since everyone attached him to the quote. Weird how everyone believed it too, including myself at one point.

Not a Verstappen fan (Norris all day), but is the media and the larpers acting genuine, since there really wasnt that much of a noticable complaint train when Mercs, more than offten (not just Hamilton) were basically 1 - 2 each race weekend?

The thing with these succesive periods of domination is that it kinda killed the romanticism around formula 1 and drivers, and it makes it clearer than ever that it's the car doing the winning not the driver. When you have a driver who wins consecutive seasons basically unopposed struggle to make it to Q3 or get podiums the next season while other driver starts dominating after a rule change, you get to see what's the most important factor. And it's even more cruel for fantastic drivers like Norris who may never even win a race (forget even fighting for a championship) if they don't luck into the dominating car of the time. Drivers are way more attractive and marketable than machinery to the casual fan, so you really need to find a way to give more relevance to them besides a Netflix documentary once a season. In the past reliability would often throw a wrench on things and allow for more winners when the top car had a failure. But after F1 decided to go "green" and only allow 3-4 engines a year reliability skyrocketed and that random factor was also lost, funneling even more wins to the top car. Sooner or later they will need to add some Balance of Performance system or simplify to cars (since manufacturers would never accept spec cars) to the point even a potato team can be competitive and you can't come up with fancy solutions. It would kill the engineering spirit of F1 but casuals really don't care about it as I stated earlier and at least the show would be better.

I am a long time Hamilton fan but I respect the 2021 standings. Who ever believes that Hamilton is 8 times world champion my only argument against them is that if Hamilton was so good it shouldn't have come down to the last race.

I feel like the only difference between Max's dominance and Schumacher's is the length of the season. Schumacher ran half, or less than half, of the races Max is currently running in one season, which makes last year that much more impressive. But we're forgetting how many races Schumacher ran away with to a point of finishing almost a minute or more in front of his teammate in 2nd place. Max hasn't gotten to that point, yet. I think it'll be awhile yet before we go into a season finale with 5 drivers mathematically eligible to win the title again, but Melbourne just showed that the unthinkable can still happen.

Does anyone remember when Schumacher won by a minute? Would lap almost the entire field. This is a driver dominating when F1 cars are at the closest in terms of lap times. There isn’t a team that’s 4 seconds a lap off the pace like in the 00’s.

The problem here isn't Max. Its Perez. Even when Lewis was winning, he was being kept honest by his team-mates. I'd be really interested to see what would happen if they stuck Alonso in that Red Bull as his team-mate next year.

When Max hangs up his racing gloves, it will be one of the saddest moments in F1 history like when Michael announced his retirement after Monza 2006.

Maxs biggest problem is his dad. he needs to remember hes not a driver anymore and his opinions are not needed or welcome, his days of relevancy has long passed

Max’s Domination is a Problem because he is in a Red Bull & also the British Run F1 Media have Hated Max in general since he was 17! They had NO problem of Lewis winning 6 Championships & Mercedes Winning 8 Constructors Championships in a Row…I wonder how much Toto paid for British Media PR over that Time? 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Formula One is a British sport, run by Britons and covered by Britons 🏎️🇬🇧 Formula One logically has a thick British bias. This thick British bias even got thicker when Lewis Hamilton entered. The double standards of British and BLM talking heads on Max’s domination compared to Merc’s domination keep surprising me.

if you don't enjoy watching max win, you don't understand the talent he has. The only reason he's so fast apart from being a natural is the fact the fastest car you can build can only be driven by someone with his talent. his car to drive is like playing call of duty on maximum sensitivity and some..it's just too unstable for most drivers. That's the beauty of watching Max dominate, you're watching perfection and that doesn't come around often. If you really understand the sport, you understand when Hamilton was dominating, you were simply watching a good driver and an epic car designed with no budget cap and unlimited spend. With the cap now in place, you see why mercedes tumble down the order because it's about building the best car that can be driven by someone who can handle it.... redbull engineers/design + max = is that perfect combination. Reminds me of the Senna days.

I think I tuned in around half way through 2021, mostly because a cousin told me there was a fight for the title going on. I then kept watching the moment Magnussen was announced to return, and as a Dane that was simply delightful to watch. Getting to witness his performances return in full force has been great, and while all of us back home hold onto that elusive second podium, we are all essentially cheering on Haas and Kevin especially to prove they can still get off the bottom of the season. Personally I do not care much for who wins, I'm more invested in watching my representative driver show that he can be "best of the rest". The battle for 6th place in the constructors is what I'm there to watch currently. The top 5 seems pretty cut and dry as it currently stands, and therefore the real race tends to be when one of those drivers from the top teams DNF, because that means points are on the table for anyone.

As an American who loves all forms of 4 wheeled racing, and also someone who is a Red Bull fan, it is discouraging for most fans to see a driver dominate, whether it be F1 or NASCAR. Fans got tired of Jeff Gordon in 1998 when he won 13 of 32 races that season. Fans also steered away from NASCAR during the mid-2000's up until about 2017 when we started to see ratings level off and increase for multiple reasons, but I'd say the sheer domination by Jimmie Johnson was a driving factor. He may not have won every race, but he won 5 NASCAR Cup Series championships in a row, and 7 all together. It almost felt as if once the season started, Jimmie Johnson was champion. It's discouraging to watch, and I see F1 in the same boat. However, I've been watching F1 for a while, and I know that Schumacher in a Ferrari was dominating. Hamilton in a Mercedes was dominating. Currently, Max in a Red Bull is dominating. This is common place in F1. Does it bother me? Not really. The best driver with the best car usually wins. It's sad it happens every week, but that's the nature of the beast. I would like to see what Max would do in an IndyCar, albeit a Penske or Ganassi car at a track like COTA or Indianapolis Road Course. Seeing what he could do in a spec series would really show how talented he is. I understand most of IndyCar may not be on the same level, but I'm sure an IndyCar veteran like Will Power or Ryan Briscoe, or even a Pato O'Ward would be interesting to see.

I feel like I understood Schumachers dominance when I was a kid because you could literally see it for yourself on TV. I miss when the director didn't feel like the cameras were toys to play around and actually gave you context to the things that were happening in the race. You'd get to see Michael's onboard and experience the man working for a lap or two STRAIGHT. No cuts. Watching the man go to work and tame the beast. Become the beast. I know I sound like an old fuck and I'm just 30. But I do miss the long onboards. And I feel like people are missing a huge part of his dominance. Like, you know. His craft.

The difference in the dominance of Max and Lewis is that Lewis had to contend with Nico and then Seb then Max himself for a few years, he was always the favorite but he had a challenge. Max on the other hand, has non.

here's the problem with max's dominance compared to seb/hamilton/schumacher, in the seasons where someone else was dominant there were drivers each race that could give a challange to the champion, there is a reason why hamilton doesnt have a high win streak however with max, there is no-one else to win, i mean hell when was the last time this guy was beaten on track? (as in races where he didnt DNF)

Going from a Lewis to Max era as a fan of both it'd be amazing except the competition hasn't been great. I miss Rosberg

Weird how they complain about Verstappen dominating but everyone was quiet with Hamilton... Verstappen really isn't the media darling Hamilton was

I find it suprising how everyone so quickly and conveniently forgets Mercedes and Hamilton, especially in 2020 for example ... and acts like this is just now becoming a problem.

even Rosberg gave Hamilton a competition to his titles every year. With Verstappen has no one challenging and its making it boring to watch

Josh Revellution

Dear F1 fans, I would like to extend a formal invitation to join the NASCAR fandom until your sport figures out how to improve competition. We have drinks, snacks, a new car with the ability to pass other cars regularly, bumper to bumper racing where almost any driver could win any race, super speedways, 1.5 mile tracks, short tracks, weird looking tracks, road courses, a street course, pit stops, fun drivers, angry drivers, annoying drivers, everyone is allowed to just say anything they want over the radio, collectables , we even have our own bumper (truck) car division! The only downsides are that the races are sometimes too long, the broadcasts vary wildly in quality week to week, there’s commercials and you know…racist fans. So crack a beer and join us for awhile Friday to Sunday from February to November for some racing

Every time a Josh Revell outro rolls, a part of my mind triggers on the first note and I go listen to Dagothwave.

Einstein didn't say "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result". He wasn't associated with the phrase untill the 80's , decades after his death. The real author of the phrase is Civil rights campaigner and feminist writer Rita Mae Brown who uses it in her book Sudden Death from 1983.

I started watching this season with the mindset that whoever wins 2nd place is the true winner that day. The Constructors and drivers championships are gonna be won by RB, so where will you get your excitement? 2nd place

A mention of my city, Stoke-on-Trent, in a Josh Revell video? That made me giggle maniacally!

When Mercedes were dominating with Hamilton, all of the media were praising their work. But when Red Bull and Max does it, it's all booring and hurts the sport..

I think its not the fact that hes dominating, its the fact that he wins every week with a 10+ second gap. It turns people off, especially in America where F1 is trying to get. We're used to close racing in Indycar and NASCAR, not Baku-level dominating

It’s a dilemma when a non-britt dominates for two seasons… Let’s see… Two seasons in which max has dominated with his lowly teammate only winning four races, one close season in which Lewis & Max’s teammates only won one race each, four seasons with Lewis dominating in which his teammate won 9 races (0.25 races a year more than Sergio averaged in the two dominant RB seasons.) Why wasn’t this a problem when it was Hamilton? Right, because he’s British.

Fuck the critics, appriciate greatness when you are in presence of it... one day it will be gone.

You want an exiting F1? here're some tips: -Get rid of the budget cap. That way investing in F1 isn't a 10 year commitment for investors. -With that in mind, then Liberate design a bit, including engines. That way innovation popup constantly, surprising us every year -With those in mind, then Let new teams join, and fail, or win, who knows! You can also sprinkle the sport with: full track DRS, LESS STREET TRACKS, no sprint races and maybe a final invitational race after the season is over with only former F1 champions driving whatever they want in a classic track like Spa, Monza or Silverstone.

Its not Max's fault he deserves this, he has halmarks of the greats; hardly making mistakes, ruthless racer & u can count on him to be exicting if required. Its the regulations, you get close following but not much wheel to wheel action. All the other teams have dropped the ball

You know, it feels about as consistent as 2014 Xfinity Kyle Busch.

Max Verstappen took the red bull seat, the girl and the daughter too just for good measure. Jeez man!!!

Verstappen reminds me of Djokovic. Everyone loves the previous dominating champions but once he appears it's suddenly "problematic" and "bad for the sport".

And the funny thing some say Max should not be in the grid now and F1 will not boring yet when Max DNF in Australia last sunday and it was boring race and not have fight for the win and Sainz run away with it so removed Max and Red bull but instead will have another team dominating and funny if Max didnt DNF we will have maybe close fight for the win seem Ferrari realy was as Fast as the Red bull or even Faster that way i think this season will not be like last season let see what will happend in Suzuka 😮🎉

F1, Skysports and the press needs to understand that the sport does not evolve around the UK and they need to stop being so biased towards British drivers especially Hamilton. They didn't whine and even kept singing his praises when Hamilton was dominating F1 with Mercs (They even attacked Rosberg for being dangerous and made personal attacks on Rosberg i.e. being the son of a former Formula One world champion while Hamilton is the "victim"). Even the last few years when RB was dominating, they kept defending Hamilton and blaming everyone else including Merc.

It’s insane how people are saying watching one of the greatest domination periods in sports history is considered boring. I think some of the F1 fans are just gonna complain no matter what happens

I'm half way through the video but the current 'problems' can be summed up by the following: RB was in a similar 'stuck' position when they had a Renault power unit. Mercedes are stuck because they can't sort out all of their problems by throwing money at it. All wrapped up by a technical directive in 2014 that prevented the FRIC system - which IF standerised or controlled... would make it easier for teams to catch-up. If teams could stop worrying about the suspension then they could catch up on aero in my opinion.

Every time I see a video like this all I can think of is the comparable radio silence about 7 years of Mercedes boredom I suffered through from 2014-2020.

Well said Josh! Us real fans are not ‘bored’ of him winning. Rather we are amazed as to how he can consistently deliver, no matter the conditions, circuit or tyre degradation. Fake fans calling for this to end are the same people that will praise Michael Schumacher during his domination era. We just need to pause and admire as how one driver can cope with anything thrown at him and drive to the limit every lap in every race. Sit back and enjoy this special driver. Cheers!

The NBA had this problem during the Warriors era of dominance. Especially because the finals opponent was the Cavs each time. But at least games were closer than what Max is doing. Most qualifying is Max winning pole and getting 5 seconds away from 2nd by lap 5 cruising to a victory...

I did not know the Valley Girl speech pattern had made it to Australia! Interesting

Just like his Uncle Schumacher, Max is leaving a genuine impression on the sport.

Someone made a comment on another video on how F1 is the new Polo for the Elites, and honestly, it was the perfect way to put it. The racers race, nothing much more they can do, and I never had a problem with Verstappen himself, but when you look at how F1 is run, by team owners, by the leaders of F1, the FIA, as well as the main financial provider of F1, I started to see what they wanted out of F1. The philosophy of F1 is that there must be a dominant driver, a Draw if you will, like a WWE Champion. They feel if there isn't one in their multi-Billion dollar enterprise that they'll go under, or stop growing. Look at how F1 treats every other racing competition, look at how they treat traditional road courses, they hate them, why? They're preventing them from growing, they want more of the money pie. They want Las Vegas, Miami, Paris, London, they want elite cities, not Austin, not Stavelot, not Hockenheim, not anywhere they don't consider elite and considered the boonies. Now look at F2/F3, both have been INSANE in recent years of competition, IndyCar too, in fact, it really sucks what's happening to IndyCar because despite having one of their better seasons, they're still losing money and sponsors. All 3 leagues are more competitive, and in the case of Indycar, they don't turn their nose up on any racing venue, even ovals that normally Nascar drives on. I would argue all 3 leagues are more racing fan friendly, instead of Elite. Which again, I ask everyone, if and when you can, SUPPORT INDYCAR! If the day comes that the Indy 500 is the only speedway race they do, while every other race is at least a North American road course/street race, I think IndyCar could see a rapid rise in popularity, especially knowing it's more competitive and driver oriented. Let the "Elites" have F1, Asia can have Formula Super (and expand outside Japan), North America can have Indy Car, F2/F3 can have anywhere else that has a compatible track.

Fun thought experiment: imagine instead of signing with RedBull and skipping F2, Max signed with Mercedes and did a season in F2. That would put him in F2 in 2015 (which he likely wins) probably races for Williams in 2016 while on his Merc contract. Then Nico retires and max gets moved up into the dominant Mercedes alongside Lewis Hamilton in 2017. He gets a legitimate chance to fight for a championship 4 years sooner than he did at RedBull. But he and Jos decided it was important to get into F1 right away. Max could have won his 5th championship in 2021, rather than his 1st.

Its so difficult. I justified my enjoyment of last season by telling myself I was watching history. Watching one of the greats break records that might never be broken again. Im a Mercedes fan, and a Lewis fanboy, but I love racing more. I can separate myself from my love and appreciation of Lewis to recognize greatness, and a special driver, moment, drive, or season. But this season its harder. Im sure records will be broken, Im sure history will be made again. But its tough to justify for the second season. I don't fault RB....I mean what did we expect? They build a worse car so other teams can compete for the betterment of the sport? No. What I did expect was teams like Mercedes, Ferrari, Aston, and McLaren finally getting close to the same level of engineering, pace, and talent. I just expected better from them. F1 has an accumulation of the best engineers, designers, aerodynamicists, and talent in the world. I mean these people are beyond genuises to me. Its why I fell in love with the sport. What they're able to achieve on track. But its been incredibly frustrating to see all of them fall so far short of where 1 team was able to get to for 3 seasons straight. Mercedes going backwards, forwards and then 10 steps backward....Ferrari making progress, but extremely slowly. McLaren taking huge leap after huge leap only to find themselves still short of RB and Aston just all over the place. I mean I get it....its hard to build an F1 car. Its harder to build the fastest F1 car. The field is the closest we've ever had.....but Im still unsatisfied. Because the position that matters most almost always has the same guy. Everyone has ideas on how to change it. I honestly expected the same cycle as other times regs changed. 1 team gets it right, and every season following, other teams slowly catch up. So far nobody has caught up. No sport is enjoyable when 1 team wins everything. The sport just loses its magic. Hope got me through 2022 thinking that next year someone is bound to catch up, 1 year should be enough. 2023, hey Im watching history. This is fine, Ill get to tell my kids I got to watch Max Verstappen Super Max his way through an entire season. This is legendary driving in a legendary car. 2024.....Watching a race feels like looming torture. You know its coming, you know 1 lap into the race he's going to have a 3-second gap....You know Sergio Perez isn't even going to be abe to put up a fight....in the same car..... You just know he's going to win by a margin of at least 20 seconds. I mean if there was a fight for the win anytime after the first corner.....Yeah...good race....Yet Ican only justify watching for the guys racing behind. But the Magic has faded. I want 2021 again, I want the early 2010s again or the late 2000s. I want a title fight, I want multiple race winners, I want strategy calls/blunders that decide races, I want drivers fighting for every inch and point, I want a title fight.....we deserve a title fight.....