The "unprecedented reliability" jinx is unbelievable

The reason why it feels different is it’s a driver dominating and not the team. Other teams and drivers can challenge Perez on track and do, while Verstapen seems untouchable

Max's is that the gamer who even after finishing a game still wants to get 100% completion. Even after winning the title with 5 races to go he still won every race last year. His relentless desire to win after winning the championship is incredible. He is possible the last driver you want to have a dominant car because unlike other champions he never has an off day. You can argue about who the fastest is between Senna, Schumacher, Hamilton or Verstappen is and their arguments for all of them. But in terms of consistency and machine like efficiency, we are witnessing another level

The thing with Verstappen is that everyone saw this coming years in advance. For a long time there has been a consensus that Lewis and Max are the top 2 drivers in F1. We knew that whenever Red Bull gave Max a competitive car, which was a matter of time, that he was going to win multiple world championships.

The reason it feels different is the amount of consecutive wins Verstappen gets is incredible, plus Red Bulls mechanics and engineers have built a very reliable car. During Schumachers, Hamiltons &Vettels dominent eras they didnt win every race, other drivers won the occasional races throughout the season

IMO it feels different because SkySports tells us its different. We didn’t hear domination being a negative when it was Mercedes and Lewis.

Its just sad when you saw people hate max because of his dominance. They bully him and redbull instead of supporting and pushing their own favorite team. I don't have a favourite driver, but hating and bullying on one is just pathetic yk, very unsportsman like.

Watching now for over 30 years, this is not boring, this is special

Who’s here after the smooth operation

You left out the FACT that Mercedes had two years developing the hybrid power unit before anyone else was allowed to.

i think the things that are helping max the most are the increased number of races a year and the sim racing honestly, like sure he's not the best over 1 lap, but the sheer number of races he's competed in (both irl and online) have allowed him to develop his racecraft to such a high level, plus the fact that his attitude that only a win is really good enough (while he has the best car, i wouldn't be surprised to see that mentality hurt him if he's in another super tight championship battle). also side note: it still blows me away that in 2012 we had the championship winners for every season from 2000 to 2020 on the grid

That reliability Stat aged well😅

Firstly... he won the most consecutive races in history.... 19 out of the last 20. Secondly, both Schumacher (who was my idol) and Ham did mistakes, here and there. Max doesn't make mistakes (anymore).

This whole “faster over one lap” is the miss congeniality of F1, points are scored at the grand prix not at qualifying.

2 things, I think the biggest difference in the Merc domination and Red Bull is that, Merc and/or Lewis occasionally had bad days. Germany 2019, Austria 2018, Monza 2020 and 70th anniversary GP comes to mind which allowed other teams to capitalise, which arguably Red Bull/Max, seem to have very few, if not any, for example since the TD that effectively began the full fledged dominance, they have made 2 mistakes in set up which allowed Russell to win in Brazil and Sainz to win in Singapore. Secondly, the biggest difference in this domination is Max. Say what you will about the car and his teammate, no wdc has had THIS level of consistency. To put it into context, since 2021, when he has finished a race without damage, which is 60 in total, he has won 46 of them, p2 11 times, p3 once in Monaco and p5 and p7 in Singapore, which is consistency unlike we've ever seen. Maybe a bit of luck in a couple of races, but to consistently bring it home and not make a single mistake is something else.

Another difference is that teams used to build their cars with different philosophies and the drivers, especially in the Bridgestone V Michelin era, would have different driving styles. Which would make it interesting to watch. Now, Max and Red Bull are so dominant that everyone is trying to copy them at least to some extent, and Red Bull can’t be beat at their own game.

He is too damn consistent, he doesn't have an off button man won his third before the Suzuka GP but you wouldn't know that by how he drove the rest of the season. If you want atleast some excitement this season somebody needs to step up like Max did in 2016-2020 during the Mercedes dominance, but so far none of them have. Zandvoort with the insanely tricky conditions should have been that opportunity instead Max just put in another master class wet drive.

Verstappen is the key. We never had a driver with this much talent and a good car at the same time. Max is such a monster now. The consistency is insane. Only thing stopping him is his car shitting itself 😄

Bro jinxed the reliability of redbull

3:06 I dont know man those monaco and saudis laps are mighty

Max started becoming the driver he is today after crashing in qualifying for Monaco 2018.

If people must use the argument that Max has the best car and 'only' Perez as a team-mate, then they must also accept that of Hamilton's 7 titles, 5 of them were with lesser drivers than Perez, ie. Kovailainen and Bottas.

FIA has changed the rules in 2022 with increased floor height. In the end it hurt Ferrari more than RB.

The question here is not what Red Bull is doing - it's what other teams are doing. Why is no one of them even narrowly capable of beating them? It's hard to believe that Ferrari and Mercedes are that incompetent of making competitive cars for years, while other teams seem completely incapable of going to the top and seem comfortable of where they are. Compare it to, say, 2004 season. Ferrari was absolute beast while McLaren and Williams dropped the ball. However, Renault and BAR were there to pick up scraps and at least attempt to challenge Ferraris, making that season at least somewhat entertaining. So, if Ferrari and Mercedes are "McLaren" and "Williams" today, my question is where are "Renaults" and "BARs"? That complacency is what ruins sport nowadays and it gets extra sad when you take in consideration that a lot of great drivers are essentially getting wasted.

Because Max on top of being more consistent driver actually focuses on racing. He literally goes simRacing after scoring pole position

Your conclusion is therefore that Max is lucky, doesn't have serious competition, the rules favour him and the FIA won't do anything about it. Sure mate ;)

The floor reduction changes for 2021 were not universally seen as a disadvantage for Mercedes. In fact, the jury was still out on which type of car would profit from it until it became clear that Mercedes had drawn the shortstick.

If nico wasnt on the grid it would have felt exactly the same for the mercedes domination that it does for the r.b

It probably feels different because there are just way too many races these days and no team is even close to red bull and max

The red bull isnt even the historically most dominant car, Verstappen is just so dominant. Hamilton fans are just malding

I think the main difference is presentation. Rather than being celebrated, dominance is demonized, even in official coverage. As if being good was a bad thing all of a sudden...

I think it's just one factor.... He doesn't have any challenger for the title. Schumacher had Raikkonen and Montoya Vettel had Alonso Hamilton had Vettel Verstappen It only has its own fast laps.

Max’s consistency and ruthlessness is an underrated factor. Lewis and others would ease up after getting the championship and could take a loss or two. Max lost twice to Perez then went on a rampage and crushed his soul and he never lets up.

Ferrari how I remember them: Ross Brawns 5D-Chess moves like that 4-stopper at Magny-Cours against Renaut, completely relying on Schumi's ability to deliver insane lap afer lap Ferrari ever since: "We are checking"

3:10 Leclerc is the fastest over one lap Sainz: hold my appendix

Only 1 and half years and everyone is already crying, love it.

Dominant team (working like a well-oiled machinery) Dominant car (designers fully understanding the ground-effect concept and are able to play with it) Dominant driver (consistent, very few mistakes and driving like a metronome , already a once-in-a-lifetime driver) Yes, this is very different...

Arguably FIA tried to stop Red Bull with the TD39

the way I see it is every all-great drivers can hit a similar level in top level pace but the abnormal consistency is only been achieved by podiums of Schumacher and wins of verstappen

I think you hit the nail on the head with the analysis. I've always felt that Max's dominance is different to that of previous eras, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. But you've got it spot on. And as someone who wasn't watching during the Schumacher era, I never knew about the qualifying/race pace discrepancy between the Michelins and Bridgestones. I thought it was just 2005 where the regulation changes hurt the Bridgestone runners. Another great video!

20 of the last 21 races. That’s why. During the other periods, other people *did* win.

I’ve been saying max is Michael reincarnated. He’s relentless pursuit of wanting to win even tho he has already bagged the title. That’s a trait the greatest drivers have( Hamilton and Schumacher)From the start of 2021 max has won 46 races in 3 years. Let that sink in. I don’t even think he has reached his peak yet. We are witnessing a talent that is coming to more rare air in the realm of all time greats.

There actually was an effort to stop Red Bull very early with TD39 but it actually stopped everyone else.

The big difference for me is the growing frustration not at max or RB but the other teams who seem to cannot get their shit together … There are always been superior cars , pilot and team in super execution show but there was always hope coming from the others tires, strategy etc … and here there just isn’t …

I think a big part of it is the gap between Checo and Max, and the sheer excellence of Red Bull's strategic calls and Max's driving. In the Rosberg v Hamilton era we got a fight for the lead, even if it wasn't between multiple teams, it was intense and entertaining. Post-Rosberg, Mercedes still was very dominant but they tend to make a lot more mistakes when compared to Red Bull, which provided opportunity for other teams to pick up a win here and there when Mercedes missed a strategic call or wasn't able to find the best setup for the track. These past few seasons, Red Bull and Max have made so few mistakes it's absurd, the only off day they've had in 2 years was Singapore last year, and I guess last weekend in Australia. It's insane. Also the way other teams haven't managed to get good balance or performance out of their cars in over 2 years speaks a lot about their development process vs the Airbender Newey.

His focus is something else. Even during their most dominant years Schumacher and Hamilton would have their incidental mistakes that would result in losses, DNF's or at least interesting races. But Max seems to almost not do self inflicted mistakes right now. And I am having a hard time remembering the last time when he lost because of a mistake of his own making.

What. A. Video. Awesome explaining as always!

Imo, the most disappointing thing about this is unlike other eras. There are so many elite drivers on the grid. That are having their talent wasted in this era because of the cost-cap etc. Lewis, George, Charles, Fernando to name four, are incredible drivers, who’d be winning races if it was like the Mercedes era from 2014-2020. If they were winning a race every so often (which they’re all capable of doing) it’d be a lot better. Which may have an effect on how some people look back on this era. Max, again, is an incredible driver. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear the excuse in the future of: “it’s not that impressive as he only had to be better than Checo and Max is obviously better than Checo. It’s not like he defeated Lewis or George or Charles or Fernando or even Norris or Piastri or Sainz fair and square. He had a car so much faster than them that the car did pretty much all of the work. He just had to better than Perez” as an example. Which isn’t fair to Max. But I can see that point being used to discredit what a great driver Max is.

Lets be honest here, RedBull have always been a championship team without an engine. Mercedes were able to anticipate the rules better and Toto practically vetoed anything to do with engine regs from 2014 to 2020. Even with the new ground effect cars, the engine regs have not really changed all that much and will be the same till 2026. Toto´s biggest mistake was thinking his engines could overcome the dominant aero that Newey would have prepared for the RB. He got arrogant and pays the price every race now.

I think you should’ve mentioned Jim Clark’s run of dominance. I believe Max is completely in-tuned with his machine, he is basically an extension of the car. That’s what they said about Clark.

Well done. Spot on. 🏁

We all have a personal favourite driver, the one you admire the most and your all time best. But Max is so perfect, it seems like he is in a league of his own.

Max is the best ever because of 2 things. His ease of adoption and his dedication. Bro relaxes with simraces. I have no doubt that if you’d put max in the other car during the mentioned domination of the other drives Max would have crushed him.

I think rather than having Max or rather criticising his dominance and calling that F1 is boring when he wins , we should be blaming other teams for not being as efficient and as reliable as Red Bull right now ! I mean Charles or Sainz or Lewis can still win races if they get the correct cars! F1 can again be competitive if other cars compete neck to neck with Max and Red Bull! I'd just wish to see Max win another championship because he is giving his best and will always will and deserve it well! Criticise as you will and Red Bull's will maintain their dominance!!,🔥

Leclerc isn't the best quali driver. That's thanks to car setup. Because where is Leclerc during the race? Pole to win ratio! And how many times did Leclerc crash his car because he is always driving over the limit? We all saw the stellar quali lap from Max and Fernando during last year's Monaco Race weekend. A Leclerc would have ended up in the wall.

vertappens brakes caught on fire causing a ferrari one two .as a ferrari boy i loved it

I think Charles is the best over 1 Lap, he is super inconsistent though, Max is consistent, he is fast over 1 lap also one of the fastest and can find lap time if he needs to, such as Jeddah 2021, Monaco 2023, I think he is just aware that he has the better race car, and therefor theres no reason to risk it.

i think you are forgetting that the wind tunnel restrictions and cost cap reductions based on constructor standings slow redbull down, so i dont think they have it any easier than the others had it with the rule changes aimed at slowing then down.

The rule changes in the past were necessary because of huge budget differences like Mercedes had. Nowadays there is a budget cap and even lesser time in the windtunnel for the winner. It makes it even more special that there is a driver dominating like Max does. Really special. Max is the GOAT.

There were some rule changes in the middle of the last season to try and make the redbull slower, but they didn't work out the way they planned it ay mercedes

The W11 was so good it made all of Merc’s other mediocre factors (drivers, strategy, reliability) irrelevant.

The one thing that always gets left out is their dominance comes with a cost cap. I honestly feel that RBs dominance is made more glaring cause of two important factors. Ferrari, Mercedes, Alpine, and McLaren are all technically skilled and resource heavy as anyone. Honestly speaking outside of RB having an generational talent in Max and a great designer there is no reason Merc and Ferrari shouldn’t be at least close technically. I feel like not enough points get made that the other teams fumbled so badly that it made RB look like they competing with amateurs

With Max the whole Red Bull team has become a well oiled machinery. The mechanics and engineers love him and respect him for his attitude towards them and the concise feedback he gives them. He doesn't behave like a 'star', but acts as if he is one of them. Add to that his talents and consistency as a driver...

I guess it's because of the Mercedes ear of dominance that redbull is soo good now. When Mercedes was dominating, Red Bull had to ensure that they are the best in everything apart from the engine. And once the engines were at par, the Bulls had a better design, it pushed them much forward than what anyone hoped.

F1 is an engineer's sport; the WRC is a true driver's sport. If you want to engineer's blueprints face off against each other week in and week out, continue watching F1. If you want to watch drivers squarring off against each and the unpredictability of the elements, watch WRC. It's truly unfortunate the extinct to which F1 dominates all other forms of racing, when F1 drivers are inarguably not the best drivers in the world. It's all marketing at the end of the day.

How would F1 change the rules to try to nerf RB/Max? Other than adding ballast I can’t figure out a way that they could change the rules without also hurting the other teams. RB’s advantage isn’t some trick that only they are doing, they just have the best understanding of ground effect and how to balance a solid overall car.

my man forget about the TD that raised the floor or about the flexi wing which were all agains radbull XD

The only difference I notice is the budget caps stopping the main rivals from spending their way out of the lesser cars.... but that could the copium talking.

Because Hamilton and Michael still had to race. Max just needs to show up.

Also don’t forget the banning of “Party Mode” Engine modes. This 100% put Red Bull in the fold.

2 mistakes: 1. regarding the floor regs, nobody really knew who it would effect and some still thought, until testing, it would hit the high rake concept more, as rbr was so heavily reliant on the floor providing a huge amount of downforce for them! toto wolff even had a cheeky grin on his face when asked if he thought it would hurt rbr, during an interview in the winterbreak! There was no general consensus that low rake was gonna be hit, and not until toto realized it would, did he start spreading the ‘they did it to hurt us’ narrative! Insider rumours on the grid were that it was toto who complained and begged pirelli, after their many tire issues in ‘20, to do something -> pirelli asking fia to do something bc the downforce load was too extreme -> fia complying and taking away downforce! Let’s not forget, even back then the red bull was as good as, if not better than, merc when it came to downforce, but their weakpoint was that renault engine (before switching to honda) which allowed merc to keep relying on having a faster pu to make up the difference and keep that gap, hence why rbr only ever did good at monaco (downforce) and mexico(altitude) 2. You forgot the floor ride height adjustments made after mercedes and toto complained and kept whining abt physical danger due to porpoising, which red bull didn’t really suffer from. Raising the height was something people expected would hurt rbr, as they could go much lower than the rest, and seemingly were able to extract a massive amount of downforce that way, but unfortunately for other teams it did not even remotely affect them!

It's so bad the biggest talking point at the moment is Williams making a driver step aside. In better news though, Vettel is going to WEC.

how you jinxed this omgggggg

Max and Schumacher are the most simular, while other drivers love racing, they life racing.

Watching this a bit late... thanks for jinxing it 😜

This spreading of false information about the 2021 regs being designed to slow down Mercedes needs to stop. The rules were requested by Pirelli to cope with aero, and initially it was excpected for Merc to have the advantage from this rule change, but it wasn't to be. The 2017 regs were also not specifically designed to slow down Mercedes the way Ferrari was screwed in 2004 for example, even if Merc's engine advantage eventually diminshed a lot. However, Mercedes surely have gotten their fair share of gifts from FIA during the new Red Bull era, like the BS pit stop rule in 2021 and the 2022 mid-season change to help porpoising.

Max deserves a lot of respect and congrats for what he’s done. However, the issue is that Red Bull is so far ahead that it’s only Perez can win races other than Max. And Max is just a better driver than Checo. At least during the Hamilton era, other drivers could win races. Even at their peak in 2020, it wasn’t as boring as 2023 was.

The FIA introduced a higher ride height in 2022, pushed by Ferrari and Mercedes, who where convinced that this would slow down RBR, even when Horner said it wouldn’t. The fact that it didn’t hurt RBR, doesn’t mean that the FIA did nothing. And now Adrian Newey took Mercedes’ zero pod concept and made it work. RBR is simply a year ahead of the pack and in the hands of Max it’s 4 to 5 tenths ahead per lap.

I think you missed one thing in particular. The quality of sim racing these days. Younger drivers such as Verstappen, but also Norris, Sainz and Russel, are more used to sim racing off the track at the highest level. Instead of doing their thing in the weekends every 2 or 3 weeks, they do it on a near daily basis, allowing for far higher consistency. Verstappen has even been seen simracing in the morning at 4 Am in his hotel room on the day of the race in Saudi Arabia.

No this is so entirely true, as a MV fan. Even the Merc era gave us interteam battles for a bit.. This era just feels incredibly dull .. with such bright stars on the grid.

Max is a perfect driver in the perfect circumstances

And don't forget the cost cap, because if you got it wrong in 2022 you're mostly condemned to play catch-up because of the limited budget and we can only wait and hope that teams can bridge part of the gap during winter, and if not, with the exception of a surprise like the jump in perofrmances from Mc Laren last year there's little to no suspens.

Those qualifying style race laps schumi would pull out during the race were legendary in how well he managed to consistently do it

Lifelong F1 fan been watching since 2000 and let me tell ya, people complain nowadays about dominance have no idea what it was like during the Schumacher era from 2000-04 when half of us fans couldn’t wait for someone to finally overthrow and topple that single bulletproof Ferrari and then when Alonso finally did it we all thought it would be a 1 season wonder cause Ferrari came back strong in 06 and nearly won again but Alonso managed again by a stroke of luck. After 06 the fans finally thought that Ferrari were beatable going into 07. That’s what you call dominance.

I don't buy that Max isn't the best qualifier. He is always 2 to 3/10 ahead of his teammate. Does he need to be half a second? Sergio Perez was the fourth best qualifier in 2020, in the racing point. He is not as bad a qualifier as everyone is making them out to be.

Some issue with large records such as most WDC titles, most poles, most wins and so on is that at some point, they either become unbeatable or beating them means we'd have to sit through mind-blowingly tedious streaks of dominance. It's kind of a shame, watching someone beat records is something cool, but when the numbers become too high, the wind-up to beating them becomes boring.

An awful lot said here was well said to me. Dominance in the past, while not ideal still at least had some sustainability via certain external factors such as teammate championship battles like Senna/Prost, Hamilton/Rosberg. Reliability being more of a factor. More teams had relatively competitive cars. Driver attitude was different. The FIA actually made efforts to prevent such insane levels of domination. These factors allowed the sport to retain some portion of interest. Now with Red Bull literally none of these factors apply. Max hasn't got a teammate to take the fight to him. Reliability, (bar that incredibly rare Melbourne moment recently), is almost perfect. Teams don't have competitive cars with Ferrari maybe being our only small hope at this moment in time. The drivers now, bare Lewis, Alonso and maybe Leclerc all accept that Max is the best and don't show enough fight to do anything about it. Lastly the FIA refuse to slow Red Bull down which totally contradicts what they've always done in the past when a team is dominating. This type of domination from Max is not sustainable in any way, and if this year turns out to be pretty much exactly like last year then surely there's no way that the FIA can possibly allow this to continue. Too many people like me will have walked away, cancelled TV subscriptions etc.

For me the difference between the max and Lewis era is the fact that during the Mercedes era their cars were rapid but that covered up a lot of their flaws which were now seeing when they don’t have the car to save them while Lewis also had certain off days meanwhile the max era every part of that team is working perfectly week in week out and people need to have the weekend of their lives to keep up with him so you’ve gotta respect everyone at redbull for playing their part in this domination

The reliability is what makes it very boring imo. In the late 90s or early 2000s, one could still hope for Schumis car to implode on occasion, so there was more variety. That's why we're all craving those few chaotic races that happen on occasion, us older fans remember the days that this was the norm.

Even if Verstappen is helped by an incredible car and an almost flawless team, there's no argument that from 2022 onward he drives closest to perfection than any other driver in history. In the two last seasons, the only error worth mentioning was his scrap with the wall in Singapore 2022. Even when the conditions deteriorates, when the rain levels the field, he's still the fastest driver and don't make mistakes, an achievement that even great rain drivers like Hamilton or Schumacher can't claim to have reached.

Great video!

It feels exactly like Hamilton dominance, same shit

Max and Red Bulls’ dominance is something that we will respect historically, however it’s a double edged sword as F1 might not be able to garner as many new fans as they could.

You can’t comprehend how special he is and it will be a long time until we will see another driver like him. His race craft is amazing as well as his 1 lap speed. What you don’t understand that Red Bulls were not so fast on 1 lap like the Ferraris were. I watched Max from his first race and I knew that he is special because he was so aggressive and courageous and felt the same for Charles but Max is just on another level. Saying that Max has just a fast car I urge you to watch Brazil 2016 and if you have something to add after that then I know that you just don’t like him because he is that good. 😉

Comparing different era's make this compilation outstanding. F1 team dominance is always very subjective and can be viewed many different ways. In the Schumacher era, team orders and pushing the 'on track rules' gave him a distinct advantage that made his records look even better than what they actually were ........ but ........ that does not detract from his amazing results.

I think you have this wrong. Verstapen is probably the best driver ever. His dominance is unprecedented. He never makes a mistake or over drives his tires. Plenty of excellent drivers on the grid today. None can touch him.

Yeah but you never mentioned that RBR have only been dominating since mid 2022, so why should they be “pegged back” ?

The only thing that makes ne unhappy is seeing my favourite F1 drivers best years go so unmatched. I loved watching Max so much in 2020 and 2021, I loved watching Lewis push him in the race, you just know that they both worked for it and things havent really been the same since. Everyone praises Max for being a mythical creature these days, but i honestly feel hes shone he's brightest when he had serious opponents and a lot more to push for. I cant imagine how boring must be looking at the data every Friday practice and seeing that your long run pace is miles ahead of everyone. He probably only lives to fine tune the car to perfection and putting it on pole, after that when he goes to bed after quali hes thinking about iracing and thats it.

2:41 - 2:46 Love it, great edit

This aged like milk