马萨让马克斯Versta大ppen title-winning prediction

Thomas Maher 15 Aug 2023 1:30 PM

Former F1 driver Felipe Massa in attendance at the Monaco Grand Prix.

F1 race winner Felipe Massa has made a bold prediction about Max Verstappen’s title-winning run.

Red Bull are closing in on a third successive Drivers’ Championship trophy with Max Verstappen, and their second consecutive Constructors’ Championship after toppling Mercedes following eight years of Brackley dominance.

With more than double the points of their nearest rival as the season gears up for the second half, Red Bull’s dominance has been the main story of the 2023 season, leading a former championship protagonist to make a bold claim about Verstappen’s relentless winning.

Felipe Massa: Max Verstappen will win everything until regulations change

With only Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez preventing Verstappen from finishing first, on two separate occasions, no other competitor has come even close to preventing the Dutch driver from racking up win after win.

As a result, the former Sauber, Ferrari, and Williams driver Felipe Massa believes there will be a few more years of Verstappen domination to come – probably up until the new engine rule change comes in for 2026.

“I think that until 2026, when we will have the change of regulations, Verstappen wins everything,” Massatold Spanish publication Marca.

“I think we will have equal regulations and Verstappen is superior, Red Bull is superior. So until 2026, we can expect Verstappen to win all the titles.”

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Is Felipe Massa’s prediction likely to come true?

But Massa’s prediction is contingent on the rules remaining static – which is anything but certain over such a long span of time, especially given Red Bull’s dominance is making headlines in all the wrong ways as F1 looks to capitalise upon its recent popularity boom, particularly in the United States.

But while Red Bull’s advantage looks locked in for now, given the fact they are able to swap over their focus to 2024 already given their huge lead, might a rules change be introduced before 2026 in a bid to reign them in?

Former Le Mans class winner David Kennedy told PlanetF1.com that such an eventuality may be inevitable,backing up comments made by Richard Bradleylast week.

“History has proven that [the FIA] have done that,” Kennedy said.

“They’ve done that before, and they’ve done it, ostensibly, when Michael Schumacher was dominating.

“[The FIA] came up with a whole variety of changes, particularly in qualifying – what you could use in qualifying, what you could use in the race, they did everything to try and balance the books and stop this runaway dominance. It has a detrimental effect on the sport, absolutely.”