Domenicali: For new fans Red Bull dominance not important

The subject of having one team dominating in Formula 1 has always been a matter of debate over the years, with several teams dominating over certain periods of time, the most recent being Mercedes making a clean sweep between 2014 and 2020, while Red Bull now seem on the verge of entering a winning streak similar to their previous one with Sebastian Vettel between 2010 and 2013 winning four consecutive F1 Title doubles.

Red Bull broke Mercedes' stranglehold over the Championship in 2021 when Max Verstappen won the Drivers' Championship from Lewis Hamilton, while Mercedes claimed an eighth consecutive Constructors' Title.

In 2022, the first year under the new ground effect aero rules, Red Bull won the Title double with Verstappen despite a brief, early-season challenge from Ferrari, but are looking set to walk away with in 2023 after the energy drinks outfit won the first three races of the season.

A prospect of one team dominating F1 seemed to be of concern for investors in the sport, but CEO Stefano Domenicali moved to calm any fears.

"First of all, if a team is faster than the others, congratulations, they did a better job than the others," Domenicali, quoted by Motorsport.com, told the investors asking whether any FIA intervention is required. "It's the duty of FIA as the regulator to make sure that they check the compliance of the car with the regulations.

"If you look at the others, the other teams are very close, very, very close. I'm very confident that with the budget cap, the situation will evolve in the best way for the better competition."

Formula 1 has been working hard since Liberty Media acquired it to expand its fanbase, and in that regards, Domenicali is not worried by Red Bull's dominance.

"But on the other hand, there is one thing that is interesting to see, in the new markets, where the new audience is coming in, that is not a really important factor," he said.

"It's more let's say for the avid fans that if you see a car that is dominant, that's creating a level of less interest. For the new markets, for the new fans that are coming to the business, this is not really very important. And for us, it's important because we want to make sure there is a great competition in the ecosystem.

"But I would say if I look today, in the markets where we are growing, this factor is not so relevant as you think. And this is, in a way, very interesting to share. But that's the truth. For sure we see in the first three races Red Bull was very, very competitive. I'm expecting the others to catch up.

"We need to wait and see the effect of the penalty that they had last year with the wind tunnel reduction. The championship is very long. And I think we're going to have good surprises before the end," the Italian maintained, referring to Red Bull's F1 cost cap penalty.

Greg Maffei, Liberty CEO, backed Domenicali, he added: "The history of F1 is that there have been teams that had to run, Red Bull had a run, Mercedes had a long run. But you look behind that we're actually seeing more overtaking and more competition than ever.

"I think we can look statistically there has been more overtaking this year than in prior years. And I think you'll see more of that.

"So there is excitement on the track. And as Stefano rightly points out, it's three races, we'll see how the year goes," Maffei concluded.