Max Verstappen calls out Lewis Hamilton’s hypocrisy for demanding rule change to end Red Bull dominance
Max Verstappen stood up to Lewis Hamilton trying to get the FIA to set a rule regarding the time allowed for each team to work on their car for the next season.
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For eight long years, Mercedes have reigned supreme in Formula 1 and they could only be usurped from their top spot by Red Bull in 2022. Thanks to the exemplary performance of Lewis Hamilton, the Silver Arrows have brought numerous laurels back home to their Stuttgart headquarters but the team had a hard fall from grace in 2021 when Max Verstappen, with zero Championship wins to his name, challenged seven-time F1 season winner Hamilton and even defeated him successfully.
Since the great defeat at the hands of Max Verstappen, neither Lewis nor his team Mercedes have found their way back to their winning ways. In 2022, Mercedes had a hugely upsetting season with their only race win in the entire year coming from newbie recruit George Russell. In the same year, Lewis Hamilton saw no Grand Prix victories, and it pained all his hundreds of thousands of fans to see the Briton complete his first-ever winless season in Formula 1.
Now, with a double podium in Spain and a podium for Lewis Hamilton in Canada, it almost looks like Mercedes are slowly becoming competent again. But the troubles are far from over for Hamilton as he is currently on the quest for a record-breaking eighth F1 title. Recently, he commented about the need to implement a rule so that all the teams get equal time to develop innovations for their car for the next season so that everyone starts from a level ground. But this ticked off Max Verstappen as he complained, “I didn’t hear him say this when he won titles all these years, did I? This is how Formula 1 works.”
Lewis Hamilton protests against teams starting off work too early for next season
For the last couple of years, Mercedes have not been in their usual victorious form, and the reason that everyone suspects is their car. Thus, they have to put in more research into making the perfect car, but they have not yet started work on their project for the next year. Meanwhile, other teams, such as Red Bull, have. In fact, after severing ties with Honda, RBR have even been developing their own engines for 2026 under the Red Bull PowerTrains programme. To prevent them from getting an upper hand by starting early, Lewis Hamilton urged the FIA to implement a rule.
The seven-time World Champion said, “The FIA should probably put a time when everyone is allowed to start on the next year’s car. So, then, no one gets an advantage on the next year.“
Lewis Hamilton’s comment did not sit well with his rival from Red Bull, Max Verstappen, but the advice might be taken into consideration by the FIA. In recent years, the governing body of Formula 1 have come out with several regulation changes, and last year, the F1 world saw them tweak a few rules to eliminate porpoising as it troubled the drivers from Mercedes the most. Now, it remains to be seen if the FIA are once again moved to take action based on Lewis Hamilton’s complaints this time or if they answer his protests with silence only.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)