Lewis Hamilton blames FIA’s regulation changes that ‘never seem to work’ for boring F1

Conceding there’s “not much competition” in Formula 1 today, Lewis Hamilton has blamed the sports bosses for messing with the regulations even though the past has shown “it never seems to work”.

Overhauling the technical regulations last season, Formula 1 implemented one of the biggest changes in decades as the sport swapped from over-car airflow to ground effect aerodynamics to create the car’s downforce.

It was a change that was implemented with the intention of bringing the grid closer together.

Instead this season there is just one team, Red Bull, that is dictating the grands prix and five races into what is now a 22-race season they already have one hand on the championship trophies with the team have clinched all five race wins, of which four were 1-2 results.

With their rivals not even in touching distance, Red Bull easily 30s up the road at the chequered flag, fans have been critical of what is turning out to be a boring season with two drivers from the same team fighting at the front.

Hamilton concedes it’s “boring” and has blamed the sport’s bosses for messing with the regulations.

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“I’m challenged every single day to get back to the front, so it’s definitely not boring from my perspective,” said Hamilton.

“But as a racing fan watching, I can understand because there’s not as much competition as there perhaps is in the NFL or the NBA at the moment.

“That’s not my doing.

“As a sport they have already tried to bring the teams closer but it never seems to work. All I can say is that we’re working as hard as we can to close up and get back and give them more of a fight.”

Prior to the introduction of ground effect aerodynamic cars, Formula 1 has arguably had its best season in years in 2021 when Hamilton and Max Verstappen raced wheel to wheel for the World title, with the battle decided on the very last lap of the season.

That, however, took seven years to achieve as the 2014 engine regulations changes had set Mercedes apart from the chasing pack with Red Bull and Honda eventually closing the gap.

Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell offered his advice – don’t watch the race for the win, watch the fight for P3.

“The competition we’ve got at the moment between Ferrari and Aston Martin, at every race we go to it’s really close between us in qualifying, the pace is really close in the race,” said Russell.

“It’s obviously just a shame that there’s two more cars well out in front. So forget about those two and just watch the race for P3. It may be a bit more exciting.”

To date P3 belongs to Fernando Alonso with the Aston Martin driver bagging four of those, the other P3 going to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Only once this season were two non-Red Bull drivers on the podium and that was in Australia where Hamilton was second with Alonso third.