Lewis Hamilton asks FIA to make the right decision as Max Verstappen’s absolute dominance is hurting fan engagement

The Mercedes driver believes Verstappen's dominance has "heavily impacted" the sport.

Lewis Hamilton asks FIA to make the right decision as Max Verstappen’s absolute dominance is hurting fan engagement

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton (via IMAGO)

Mercedes driver and seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton has recently asked the FIA to step in and act upon this year’s boring competition. Hamilton hasn’t won any Grand Prix since his title fight with Max Verstappen in 2021. This can be a reason why the Britons demand actions from the federation to make sure of close racing.

However, Hamilton didn’t directly ask the FIA to intervene and stop Verstappen from dominating. He rather asked for the “right decisions” to be made to create closer and more competitive racing. As Hamilton is still leading the pack in the Driver’s Standings after the Red Bulls, he wants it to be much more entertaining for the viewers. 

YouTube video

Hamilton shed light on the fact that F1 had lost viewership and online engagement in comparison to 2021 and 2022 as he believes lack of competition at the front is the clear reason for the loss of this huge engagement chunk.

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Within our sport, we have to continue to work on making sure we are having close racing. Because you’ve seen the social engagement drop a huge amount this year. We have to make sure that the right decisions are being made. Or the governing body is making the right decisions, to keep us close and great racing right to the end.
Lewis Hamilton told PlanetF1

Hamilton asked the FIA to look into it and asked that the governing bodies make the right decisions. He further demanded the FIA for making more grandstands around the circuit. He also tipped in the idea of tickets being sold for a lower cost.

FIA had already made its stand clear on the dominance of Red Bull

Mohammed Ben Sulayem, FIA’s president, had previously talked about the Mercedes driver’s statements. He called on the driver to not be a hypocrite as his team also had a brief period of dominance in the sport. From the period of 2014 to 2020, six of those titles went to Hamilton, and one to his former teammate Nico Rosberg.

FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem
Mohammed Ben Sulayem. (via Twitter / FIA)

Mohammed Ben Sulayem believes it’s too severe to punish success. He’s seeking ideas to restore fair and democratic competition. He assured that FIA won’t penalize success, although one driver has dominated in the past. Separately, the FIA raised the driver’s fine limit from €250,000 to one million pounds. This move faced criticism from both drivers and team principals.

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