Christian Horner believes that Formula One fans worldwide are desperately seeking more action in the sport they adore before they end up walking away once and for all.
The Red Bull Racing boss believes that a lot of the problem with the series at the moment is the complete and utter dominance of the Mercedes team, who have taken the title for the past three seasons in a row without any real competition.
It is as if at the start of the race weekend, fans already know it would be a Mercedes front row or the race and barring accidents or the odd unreliability issue, it would be a Mercedes one two by the time the weekend was over.
Not all races were like that, especially in 2017 when Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes suffered a string of reliability issues and fans across the world will never forget the penultimate round in Brazil where rain made the event a touch and go race for most drivers.
His driver, Max Verstappen, was the talk of the race which had fans talking for the next week. That, says Horner, is the key to a strong championship…
"I think when you see the reaction to a race like Brazil and people were still talking about it a week later, it demonstrates – and just hearing the reaction from the crowd was fantastic – and shows what F1 is capable of,” he said. "We just need to create more weekends like that throughout a year. Nobody enjoys serial winning.”
Mercedes is not the only team that have enjoyed dominance at the top of the field, in fact, Red Bull were the team to beat for four years running before Mercedes stepped up to the plate. However, Horner believes it was different during their reign….
“We were accused of it in the four-year cycle we had. But one of those years there were seven winners in the first seven races. Two of those championships went down to the final grand prix. And it was always a battle either with Ferrari or McLaren or Mercedes towards the end. There was far more competition. I think F1 is in desperate need of that competitive element – where you really need three and six drivers going into a grand prix who can be capable of winning it."
