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Lewis Hamilton has once again urged the FIA to make the right decisions in order to stop Max Verstappen's dominance. The Mercedes driver has been one of the more vocal advocates of urging an FIA intervention for the technical regulations to decrease the Austrian team's advantage over the rest of the field.
He's talked about it earlier in the season as well and during the 2023 F1 US GP race weekend, albeit in a somewhat subtle manner. The new regulations were supposed to make the cars racier and prevent one team from running away with an early advantage. To facilitate that, a rolling scale of decreasing wind tunnel time allocation has been set where the higher the position in the Constructors' championship, the lesser development time is available.
Despite these constraints, Max Verstappen has continued to dominate the sport since 2022. The driver won 15 races last season and he's already won 14 races this season heading into the 2023 F1 US GP weekend. Lewis Hamilton on the other hand has struggled at Mercedes. The driver does not have a car capable of challenging for the title and has not won a single race since 2021.
The driver was talking about the reduced social media engagement and the impact of Max Verstappen's dominance to the media including PlanetF1 and talked about how it was important for the FIA to make the right decisions for the sport. He said:
“I think, within our sport, we have to continue to work on making sure we’re having close racing because I think you’ve seen the social engagement drop a huge amount this year being that. It’s obviously heavily impacted on competition. People want to see that."
He added:
"So, we have to make sure that we’re making the right decisions, or the governing body is making the right decisions, to keep us close and great racing right to the end. We need more grandstands. I don’t know whether we need to lower the cost but maybe, I don’t know.”
FIA president not in favor of Lewis Hamilton's suggestion
The FIA president was not in favor of Lewis Hamilton's suggestion of intervening in the regulations. Mohammed ben Sulayem questioned the fairness of such a move as he said:
“It’s a bit harsh and not right to go and punish success. I mean, I’m open for suggestions if you think that there is a way to be fair and to be democratic, and not to just punish Max and his team or any other team. We’re all ears here really. But I’m stuck like you. There’s no way that the FIA will punish success, and it [one driver dominance] has happened before twice in my time.”
Lewis Hamilton has himself been the benefactor of stable regulations helping him win multiple titles. This very fact has often made him the target of criticism from the fans as well, as the Mercedes driver advocating for FIA intervention has himself been a benefactor of the same thing in his career.
