Lewis Hamilton gets more support as Johnny Herbert tells FIA to intervene

F1 legend Johnny Herbert has become the latest name to support Lewis Hamilton’s calls for the FIA to step in and cut down Red Bull’s advantage at the top of the field. The Milton Keynes-based team have won each of the 12 Grands Prix so far this season.

The seven-time world champion had previously suggested that Red Bull’s dominance was the most extreme that the sport has seen in the modern era. He proposed that the FIA should step in and provide a development cut-off date to stop the team from rolling over their advantage into 2024 and beyond.

Speaking to CasinoSite.nl, Herbert explained: “I still feel that the teams have too much control in terms of where that development should go for the future of F1. That is where I think it needs to be taken back by the FIA to work out what needs to be done to make racing better without teams opposing everything.”

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Herbert also suggested that Red Bull’s team philosophy is having an impact. He continued: “The team’s whole ethos is to dominate but we don’t want domination. That was the whole concept of what the ground effect car was supposed to have improved. It concerns me. 

“How do you change that to create more competition? After all, it is a competition. Or supposed to be. You can always throw at me that it’s always been a part of F1. It has but not for the extent that Red Bull is doing now, for four or more years.”

The 59-year-old is not the only member of the F1 community to come out in support of Hamilton’s proposal. Red Bull’s total dominance in 2023 has led to widespread claims that the season has been boring, and viewership numbers will suffer if that continues.

Former Le Mans 24 Hours winner Richard Bradley told the On Track GP podcast: “The way of FOM and the FIA, they always design rule cycles specifically to screw the team that’s leading at the time, because they will literally want to put that team down.”

In addition to Bradley and Hebert, ex-F1 driver David Kennedy explained to Planet F1: “It does take away some of that conflict that you’re going to see in top-end sports. There’s nothing worse than knowing what the result is going to be. I don’t think there’s any reason why they wouldn’t look at trying to balance the books in some way.”