© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes had conversations about the negatives of having a one-team domination “even when we were having our dominance”.
Lewis Hamilton recently said the FIA should introduce a rule that forbids team to start developing next year’s cars early in the season, as it allows dominant teams to have a head start compared to other teams, and that way they extend their dominance.
This prompted Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, Christian Horner and Helmut Marko to accuse the Briton of directly targeting them, and say that he wasn’t talking about it while Mercedes was the dominant team.
In a talk with Channel 4, Lewis said he was not targering a specific team or driver.
“I saw all the things that that spiralled into,” the Briton said.
“And they’re like ‘you didn’t say anything when you were…’. The truth is, it’s something we’ve been talking [about], we’d had conversations and we’ve been talking about it even when we were having our dominance.
“I remember when there were times we had really good battles with Ferrari, and then I remember times where we had a chunk of a gap, and for me, that wasn’t really…
If you like SilverArrows.Net, consider supporting us by buying us a coffee!
“Of course I wanted to be at the front and I wanted to be fighting, but having a half-a-second gap to the car behind, it doesn’t really feel… You wanted to have close racing, that’s what racing is all about.
“So I think they changed the rules, put this budget cap in, it’s supposed to level the field and it hasn’t done that. So, all I’m saying is we just have to continue to have the conversation.
“At the moment, if we keep things the way they are, maybe it’ll be Ferrari next to have several years of dominance and then it will be someone else. Maybe McLaren will be or maybe Mercedes will be back and again.
“But I think that’s not what’s best for the fans ultimately. And even if we end up having we’re not getting back to the front end, all I’m talking about is we shouldn’t be able to have dominance for multiple years.
“It’s got to be tough, it’s got to be closer for us all and I think that’s what will make it more exciting for the fans.
“Just from a fan point of view, of growing up watching the grand prix, I don’t think anybody wants to see the period that I had, the period that Michael [Schumacher] had, the period [Sebastian] Vettel had and now Max will be having,” Hamilton concluded.
