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F1 pundit Mark Hughes recently compared several previous dominant eras in F1 to Max Verstappen's. The Dutchman is comfortably leading the 2023 F1 championship and has already started his dominant era in 2022. Hence, it is quite fascinating to dissect the nature of Verstappen's dominance and compare it to other greats of the sport like Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, and Sebastian Vettel.
Speaking on The Race F1 podcast, Hughes initially explained how Max Verstappen has not had a tough enough teammate like Lewis Hamilton experienced with Rosberg or Sebastian Vettel with Mark Webber. He explained:
"Hamilton one...for much of it we at least had a tough teammate, and they went at it. Vettel and Webber also. This [Verstappen's dominance] is more like the Schumacher one, but Verstappen is dominant by performance alone, not also contractually. He's an all-time great driver, but he's not paired with a Rosberg or Webber, so his dominance is even greater."
Furthermore, the F1 pundit started off with Michael Schumacher, who dominated F1 with Ferrari in the early 2000s. He explained how the team and dominance were centered around Schumacher's raw talent and his own team, which he gradually built at Ferrari.
"They are each very different. In terms of, like the Ferrari and Schumacher one, it was very much driver-centric. It was all centered around the massive talent of Michael, and he brought his own people with him. He was absolutely the center of the force field that was structured that way on purpose."
On the other hand, Sebastian Vettel had much more of a family atmosphere at Red Bull when he dominated from 2010 to 2013 and was very much the favorite child of the team.
"The Vettel one was not quite as close a link as that, but it was very sort of like a family atmosphere between him and the team, and he was definitely the favorite son there."
Lastly, Max Verstappen's dominance era is much more aggressive and challenging. As per Mark Hughes, Verstappen is mainly at Red Bull because the team has provided him with the best car.
"The Max one is more challenging, and I think they challenge each other a bit more than any of the previous ones did. He's there because they have provided them with the best car, and he thinks this is where his best chances of success are going to be."
Max Verstappen was happy with the RB19's race pace and tire degradation at the Hungarian GP
Despite not bagging the pole position at the Hungarian GP, the Dutchman was able to breeze past Lewis Hamilton to take the lead in the race and win with a large gap. Speaking about his latest victory in Hungary, Max Verstappen said to Nico Rosberg in Parc Ferme after the race:
"I think over one lap, this weekend, it was a bit of a struggle but maybe it was a good thing for today. The car was good on any tyre. We could look after the tyre wear and basically that's why we could create such a big gap."
Max Verstappen is currently leading the drivers' championship with 281 points.
