Max Verstappen and Red Bull's dominance 'devastating' for F1, according to Mark Gallagher

Max Verstappen and Red Bull's dominance in 2023 was "devastating for F1." That's the view of Mark Gallagher, someone who has made his name understanding the nitty-gritty of the sport as a business.

Since 2014, the sport has seen an entirely different level of dominance as Mercedes had built a power unit that was just in a different league compared to everyone else. The power unit advantage and the well-rounded nature of the team helped the German team win eight constructors titles in a row.

Max Verstappen, however, was able to break the streak with Red Bull and defeat Lewis Hamilton in 2021.

Since then, Red Bull and Max Verstappen have taken over at the front as the team aced the new regulations. The Dutch driver won 15 races in 2022, a record at the time, and then bettered his result in 2023 by winning 19 races. The Austrian team took their dominance to a whole another level by winning 21 of the 22 races last year.

Appearing on the Flat Chat podcast, Mark Gallagher said that the level of dominance from the driver and the team has been "devastating for F1." He said:

"I think [2023 was] quite devastating for Formula 1. Brilliant for Red Bull, but devastating for Formula 1 because here we are [reflecting] on Max’s 19th grand prix [win] of the season. And all of a sudden, those records that we used to talk about from McLaren, winning 15 out of 16 races in 1988, has just all completely been blown away."

He added:

“Fans around the periphery, fans who have been initially switched on to Formula 1, for those fans to then be converted into diehard, that’s the next step and it’s challenging."

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Netflix series democratizes F1 while the reality has only Max Verstappen and Red Bull dominating

Mark Gallagher also touched upon how the Netflix series Drive to Survive gives equal importance to all teams, which helps bring in new fans. However, he said that when these fans watch the sport, it only has single-team dominance from Max Verstappen and Red Bull.

While the series has 10 episodes that give each team equal weightage, the sport is not like that. He said:

“My view on it is that the series is a 10-part television commercial for Formula 1. One of the things about Drive to Survive is it democratised Formula 1, so one episode would be about Haas; another episode would be about Alpine; another episode would be about Alfa Romeo; another episode would be about Mercedes. It’s drawn in fans fascinated by these 10 teams and these 20 drivers – but then you go to an actual race and Max Verstappen wins and Red Bull totally dominates."

He added:

“There’s a couple of other quite competitive teams behind and then, quite frankly, the bottom end of the grid are also-rans. So you’ve got a sport which has presented itself as this level playing field where everyone is in with a shout on the Netflix series, but actually the sporting/entertainment side of it is the technical meritocracy that we all know so well.

The sport has been ailing from single-team dominance for a long time now. It has been a surprise to see a lack of a concerted effort in ending such a phenomenon.