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The 2023 Formula 1 season is 11 races in.
Red Bull, between drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, has won all 11 of those races.
Verstappen, the two-time reigning series champion, already has nine victories. Perez has two of his own, and the pair sit first and second in the championship.
There are 11 races remaining on the calendar and given Verstappen’s dominant performance Sunday in Hungary, there’s no reason to believe Red Bull won’t win all 11 of those races.
The Red Bull dominance is so much so that seven-time Formula 1 champion is asking for the sport’s governing body, the FIA, to step in.
“Ultimately, it’s likely that bit by bit, by the end of the year, we’ll catch Red Bull, but that’s only because they’re already focusing on next year’s car because they’re so far ahead,” he said ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix.
“They don’t have to make any changes to this year’s car any more because they’re so far ahead, just cruising 100 points ahead of us. I think the FIA should put a time when everyone is allowed to start development on their next car.”
The FIA disagreed, and now Hamilton’s fears appear to be coming to fruition.
“The upgrades [in Hungary] did what they said on the tin, so from that point of view it’s a box ticked,” Red Bull team principal Horner said recently.
“Now, with the handicap that we have, we have to really swing our focus over to next year because we have a significant deficit in wind tunnel time compared to our competitors and we have to be very selective in how we use it.”
The “handicap” that Horner is referring to is a limit in wind tunnel time handed down as a result of the team breaking F1’s budget cap in 2021.
Though other teams have argued the penalties were not strict enough. Clearly, things have worked out okay for Red Bull in the long run.
And that may well be the case for years to come.