Is Red Bull's F1 Dominance Driving Fans Away?

There was an era in Formula 1 in which people waited to see someone beat the Mercedes team.

The Brackley-based team was able to win both championships seven times in a row since the beginning of the Turbo hybrid era of Formula 1; then, you can remember how the Mercedes team's decline happened in the subsequent season when they failed to adjust to the 2022 regulation updates. With The Spanish Grand Prix this weekend, we look at the future of the sport and the consequences of Red Bull's dominance. 

With the decline of the Mercedes team, Red Bull had no clear rival to match their performances, so they slowly started spreading their dominance. In the early part of the 2022 season, Charles Leclerc was able to clinch victories in the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Australian Grand Prix, mostly thanks to the reliability issues of the Red Bull challengers. 

Then Red Bull drivers were able to win all the Grand Prix events till the 2022 British Grand Prix. Then Ferrari drivers, Sainz and Leclerc were able to clinch the victories of the British Grand Prix and Austrian Grand Prix respectively. Since that race, two Red Bull drivers were able to win all the events of the 2022 season except the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Red Bull brought the same momentum to the next season, clinching the victory of every Grand Prix event of the 2023 season except in the Singapore Grand Prix. If Carlos Sainz wasn’t able to win that Singapore Grand Prix, Red Bull team had the opportunity to maintain a 100% record victory in the previous season. 

Compared to the 2023 season, Red Bull team is not currently dominating the sport as rival teams like McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes have shown some bigger improvements. However, Verstappen still possessed some kind of X factor even if it is not a clear dominance like in 2024 and people clearly know that he is still the clear favourite to win races. 

Till the Miami Grand Prix, it was never a difficult task for a fan to predict the outcome of any of the races as the sport turned to a totally uncompetitive nature with the dominance maintained by the Red Bull team. People slowly started hating Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team that saved the sport from the dominance of Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes. Now they want a new hero to beat Red Bull. 

Even though, some people argue that Red Bull’s dominance has become a reason to lose the F1 fan base, statistics tell a different story as a significant rise can be observed in the fan base during the F1 era when Red Bull started to dominate the sport.

How Did it Happen? 

This is mostly due to the influence of the Netflix Drive to Survive documentary series that became famous during the COVID-19 pandemic era. 

However, the on-track predictability of the championship with Red Bull’s dominance will surely become a reason to lose this newly joined fan base as well as the existing fan base in the near future.

If this trend continues in the sport, only fewer people will buy tickets to attend races and the fan engagement through Television, social media and radio will also reduce, causing reason to lose the interest of sponsors of towards the sport. This will surely hurt the financial status of the sport. 

Expressing his thoughts on the negative impact of Red Bull’s dominance during a media interview, Lando Norris once said, "If you see the same driver winning every single time without a fight then of course it does start to become boring and that is obvious. It is frustrating for people watching but that is the sport. It has always been like this. Now, we are seeing more dominance than ever so it is never going to be the best to watch and the only exciting races have been the ones that Max is not in." 

"As a field, from first to last, it is almost the closest it has ever been. But you have just got one of the best drivers ever in Formula One in one of the most dominant cars and it is a combination that is deadly.", he added further. 

According to Lando, the solution to address this issue is also not an easy thing. He pointed out the importance of opening up or closing the regulations to close the gap between the Red Bull and the rest of the field.

Over the last two seasons, Red Bull performed well mostly due to their effective aerodynamic setup that wasn’t possessed by any other rivals. By adjusting few regulations to control the performance of Red Bull challengers, rival teams can give an opportunity to match with Red Bull team. For that purpose, the intervention of the Formula’s governing body, FIA is very important. They should bring regulations in proper place to create a fair game between all the teams.

Further, it is not a secret that big teams like Red Bull with good financial backing have a good chance to perform well in the sport. Here is another point that should be addressed by FIA. If the sport is a fair place for everyone, even a small team should have the ability to perform well at the top being a threat to a team like Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes or McLaren. 

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This is not a change that can be introduced suddenly. FIA put a good effort to push the sport towards this change by introducing the cost cap regulations. It has caused a considerable amount of impact. But there are a lot of things yet to be introduced to bring the change that is demanded by F1 fans.

As mentioned, Fan engagement is the most important thing in a global sport like Formula 1. If fans are not there with the sport, then sponsors have no reason to stay with the sport. Sponsors are essential to provide money necessary for the better existence of the sport.

If sufficient money is not there, that will be the beginning of the decline of the sport. So, Formula 1 management should concern about adjusting the factors to keep the interest of fans at a very high level while maintaining close competition between all the teams involved in the championship.