All hail the Great dutch hype! Max uber alles! By con or by grift. All is fair in the land Muhammed "ain't no woman smarter than man" Sulayem.

What do you call a dutch driver whos been gifted his first wdc?

Won his second wdc with a car specced from a costcap breach commonly known as cheating.

And for his upcoming wdc has had no competition other than what his teammate was allowed to?

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I do partially agree. I feel more are catching on since there is a superstar. You see the same thing in Tennis or other sports. Periods of an athlete dominating attracts viewers. And its not like its the first overall dominant period. We are only 2 years in the current one which was preceded by an 8 (!) year period.

If i saw how Lance was owned at the Ferrari Summergame 2014 i think Lance goes playing tennis right away.

+1 Max really gains a lot in the in- and outlaps.

I think it's even more than the whole pitlane in- and outtime, I think you should look at the in- and outlaps too. In my opinion, that's where the differences are made.

that should say "an IN-ability to race on a lot of dry tracks too"

Esplatore, good points. We've often had dominant seasons, but usually there has been rivalry between drivers in the dominant team, and the cars hadn't been quite so bulletproof as this generation.

I'd say they have an ability to race on a lot of dry tracks too, and there is too much dependence on DRS to give the illusion of racing. Perhaps DRS would be better if the DRS advantage cut out once cars were side by side, more like the slip streaming effect, but it is silly on some tracks where a car without DRS has to watch his opponent sail off into the distance.

Yes, sprint races are a total gimmick. They don't provide any significant alternative to the full race. None of the current cars or drivers are any better on one format compared to the other. Perhaps if the sprint race was run in revesrse grid order it would create a more interesting racing challenge.

Zann, do you mean nobody can do pit stops as fast as Red Bull? I think the TV hype might have misled you. Red Bull are pretty good, but they are not always the fastest. In the first 14 races this year, Red Bull have had the fastest stop in seven races, Ferrari in four, and McLaren in three, and in 2022, Red Bull had the fastest stop in 10 out of 24 races.

DHL run a pitstop performance competition, and award points for a driver's fastest pit stop on the same scale as race points are awarded. The really surprising stat for 2023 is that Mercedes are down in seventh, beating only Williams, Alpha Tauri, and Haas. The margins are pretty small though. At Monza, the top ten pit stop times were

Norris, McLaren, 2.13 seconds
LeClerc, Ferrari, 2.32
Perez, Red Bull, 2.35
Lawson, AlphaTuri, 2.51
Verstappen, Red Bull, 2.54
Zhou, Alfa Romeo, 2.63
Russell, Mercedes, 2.66
Ocon, Alpine, 2.69
Piastri, McLaren, 2.77
Hamilton, Mercedes, 2.83

Pit stop time alone is misleading. What really matters is time spent in the pit lane. Some drivers attack the pit lane better than others, or get out of their box with less wheelspin. The boxes at the start and end of the lane get a small benefit because their cars can straightline into or out of their box. A fast stop isn't much good if the team has timed it badly and you follow in a slower car in the approach, or the lollipop man has to hold you for half a second while another car passes.

RBR might exchange him for their own #2 driver Max. Would Lance and Max be a balanced act at AM?

Best number 1 driver - Max
Best car out the box - RB
Best development - their advantage is no less than it was this time last year
Strategy - rarely make errors
Wet weather driving - Max
Best overtaker - Max
Reliability - a marginal consideration but still impressive in race trim
Team dynamic - Perez is both winning and in second place
Pit Stops - always competitive

I'm struggling to think of a weakness in Max or the car for the past number of seasons. As a Ferrari and Aston fan it pains me to say it but this is Schumi levels of total dominance in every element of the sport and frankly, they deserve to be commended on an legendary success.

@prab Well, Alonso is not really praising as much as he's wondering how this came about. He's upset because there's no way he can win a race at Aston Martin as the Red Bulls could turn off the engine, glide, in the slipstream of the other 20 cars and probably win the race.

He wants to race for Red Bull but they won't give him a chance.

That's 4 years of dominance with Verstappen.

@esploratore1

I don’t think f1 is in a good place:

1) Dominance never seen before

yeah, I think that's Alonso's point

@esploratore1 oddly enough, both of them said it ;-) In Alonso's complete quote, he said it.

Boring yes but should they win all races I'll look back at races they could have lost - Monaco, Zandvoort etc and appreciate how they didn't lose even those races.

It's a very easy thing to win the titles this year. What's impressive is not losing a single event while doing so.

Well I agree. If they do a clean sweep it would be a record that someone can only match, not better.

I don't think f1 is in a good place:

1) Dominance never seen before
2) Inability to race on a considerably wet track any more
3) Gimmicks like sprint races (which I prefer to practice, but they're not generally liked)

Like others said here, a lot of people stopped watching since red bull became so dominant.

I see nothing great with that, it's just a result of the better reliability nowadays and incredibly boring.

It's not alonso who said that, it's horner!

I am so glad that we have such good drivers and they appreciate each other as well. F1 is in a good place and I am pretty sure RedBull's dominance will end in 2 years (yes I am ready to wait).

Norris, Russell, Albon, Piastri, Hamilton, LeClerc, Sainz, Alonso, Verstappen & Ricciardo, I mean the grid is pretty special right now and they are all great personalities as well.