F1 News: FIA Will Not Change Regulations To Stop Red Bull Dominance

"It's a bit harsh and not right to go and punish success."

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem said that it would be wrong to change the regulations to prevent Red Bull's domination in Formula 1, which is a result of their success despite it being a turn-off for many fans. 

Red Bull has left no stone unturned, except one Grand Prix in the entire season so far to lead the F1 pack. The combination of the RB19 and Max Verstappen has proved to be a major catalyst for the Milton-Keynes outfit, leading them to win the Drivers' Championship as well as the Constructors' Championship. 

Listen To The Latest Driven Mad Podcast Episode

However, after a point, Red Bull's superiority became so predictable through the season that it supposedly dropped the social engagement with fans, as reported by social intelligence company Buzz Radar.

A scarcity of excitement grew among the viewers and fans, thus pushing many to suggest that F1 owners and bosses must try to spice things up to improve the show next year. That could mean preventing a team like Red Bull from achieving full dominance in the championship. 

But, that would mean interfering in the championship directly- a step Ben Sulayem is not in favor of. When asked if he had concerns about Red Bull’s run of success being a turn-off by Autosport, he replied:

“It [domination] has happened so many times: just look at Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher. 

"How to stop? It's a bit harsh and not right to go and punish success. 

"I'm open for suggestions if you think that there is a way to be fair and to be democratic, and not to just punish Max and his team or any other team. We're all ears here really.

"But I'm stuck like you. There's no way that the FIA will punish success, and it [one driver dominance] has happened before twice in my time.” 

The effectiveness of the 2022 ground effect regulations waned quite soon which was aimed to improve the performance of the cars but compromised the essence of racing. Though the FIA cannot take direct measures to control a single-team dominance, it would consider ways to offer better wheel-to-wheel racing in 2025.

And it is for the same reason that the FIA was looking at further car tweaks, as pointed out recently by FIA’s head of single-seater matters Nikolas Tombazis. He added:

“If we take the 2021 F1 cars, based on being two lengths from the car in front, they were losing more than 50% of the [aero] load.

"With the 2022 single-seaters, there was only a 20% reduction in load. But now we are at about 35%. Surely there has been a worsening.” 

EXCLUSIVE: Johnny Herbert On Max Verstappen Dominance, Sprint Races, And Extreme Qatar Conditions

With teams figuring out ways to divert disturbed airflow away from the car for drag reduction and improved performance, a side effect of the measure has prevented other cars from following closely. Ben Sulayem said that the FIA was aware of this but it isn't necessarily a bad thing. He said:

“They're getting smarter, but we have to be smarter than them.

"It is a good thing they are because they are making the level higher for us. Honestly, if they didn't, we'll be sitting there, like [stuck] on E5 fuel, when it comes to emissions.

"We would become lazy, and we would become not creative, and there would be no challenge.”