“People Would Have Ganged Up on Them”: Lewis Hamilton’s F1 Reign Was Once Forced Into the Shadows While Max Verstappen Enjoys the Spotlight in 2022

If we think of the teams that have ruled F1 in recent years, only two names come to mind: Mercedes and Red Bull. While the German team has almost dominated the entire last decade, the Austrian team started this decade with a bang. But as the tables turned, Max Verstappen continues to enjoy the spotlight, unlike Lewis Hamilton.

The 2022 F1 season has been pretty great for Red Bull. However, former F1 champion Damon Hill believes that the Milton-Keynes-based team is still in no position to challenge Mercedes’ level of dominance in the post-hybrid era.

Speaking on Sky Sports F1, Hill stated, “I was talking with Andrew Shovlin [Mercedes trackside engineering director] about this before the race  [2022 Abu Dhabi GP] and I made that point it’s not quite as dominant. Their dominance is not quite as dominant as Mercedes’ shift to the hybrid era.”

However, the 1996 F1 champion also mentioned a major contrasting factor between Mercedes and Red Bull and their star drivers. Hill shared that the seven-time world champion and his team had to lower their commanding role as they were too strong for everyone else to catch up.

The Briton added, “They [Mercedes] were so dominant, they had to kind of underplay it a little bit because otherwise, people would have ganged up on them.”

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Luckily, Verstappen didn’t have to go through this despite being pretty much stronger than everyone else, winning 15 races out of 22, while also setting a new record for most race wins in a season.

Were Mercedes more dominant than the current Red Bull?

The last decade has all been about Mercedes and Red Bull. Even in 2021 and 2022, it was all about the German team and their Austrian counterpart. If both the teams were at their best at the same time, would the Silver Arrows have trumped the Bulls?

As the turbo hybrid era started in 2014, Mercedes took the top spot in the table above four-time WCC, Red Bull. The Austrian team, who were absolutely unstoppable from 2010 to 2013, suddenly failed to match up to the Milton Keynes-based outfit.

The Mercedes AMG F1 team picked up back-to-back 8 constructors’ championships from 2014 to 2021. Meanwhile, their drivers, Lewis Hamilton, and Nico Rosberg picked up seven championships altogether.

From 2014 to 2021, the German team picked up a total of 111 wins, which is a massive stat in itself. However, Red Bull got 17 wins in the 2022 season alone, which is a much bigger number [77.2% win rate] when compared to Mercedes’ entire commanding run [69.3% win rate].

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So do you side with Damon Hill? Or do you think Red Bull is currently at a whole new level in the sport?