Damon Hill has never been one to bite his tongue, but even by his own outspoken standards, what the 1996 world champion said moments after the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix finale was nuclear.
Standing trackside as Max Verstappen sprayed champagne for the fifth consecutive time, sealing yet another utterly dominant season, Hill turned to Sky Sports F1’s live microphone and delivered a sentence that instantly went supersonic across the internet:
“So boring. If the Dutchman is still on the grid next year, I’ll never watch F1 again.”
The words hung in the desert night air for a split second before the feed cut to commercial. By the time the broadcast returned, #DamonHill and #F1IsBoring were the two fastest-rising trends worldwide, racking up 4.8 million posts in under two hours.
Hill didn’t stop there. Asked by Rachel Brookes to clarify whether he was serious, the 65-year-old doubled down:
“I’m dead serious. I love this sport with every fibre of my being, but what we just watched wasn’t a grand prix – it was a coronation lap that lasted 58 laps. Max is phenomenal, the best of his generation, maybe ever.
But when one driver and one team are this far ahead, week after week, it stops being racing and starts being a very expensive parade. I’ve sat through Schumacher dominance, Vettel dominance, Hamilton dominance – at least there were fights, crashes, drama. This? This is just… inevitable.”
The numbers back him up mercilessly.
In 2025, Max Verstappen won 19 of the 24 races – a record that obliterates every previous season of dominance in F1 history. His average winning margin was 18.7 seconds. He led 94.3 % of all laps completed.
Red Bull’s RB21 was so superior that Verstappen clinched the drivers’ title with four rounds remaining, and the team wrapped up the constructors’ championship in Qatar.
For context: Michael Schumacher’s most dominant year (2004) saw him win 13 of 18 races. Lewis Hamilton’s peak (2020) was 11 victories in 17. Verstappen’s 2025 campaign wasn’t just dominant – it was statistically untouchable.
Reaction was instant and polarising.
Verstappen, still wearing his winner’s cap, responded with trademark ice-cold bluntness:
“If Damon doesn’t want to watch, that’s his choice. I’m here to win races and championships, not to entertain people who think racing should only be exciting when it’s close. Go watch IndyCar if you want door-to-door every lap.”
Christian Horner, grinning beside him, added: “Maybe Damon should remember 1996 – he won the title by 19 points and only won eight races. Was that boring too?”
But Hill found plenty of support from former drivers and pundits.
Martin Brundle on Sky F1: “Damon is saying what a lot of us are thinking but are too scared to admit. We’re in danger of turning F1 into a one-man show.”
Jacques Villeneuve, 1997 champion: “When I fought Damon in ’96 and ’97, we were on the limit every single lap because the cars were equal. Today the gap is two seconds a lap. That’s not racing, that’s time-trialling.”
Jenson Button, speaking on the post-race show: “I love Max, but I also love wheel-to-wheel battles. Right now we’re not getting them often enough at the front.”
Even Lewis Hamilton, now in his first year at Ferrari and finishing a distant P3 in the championship, weighed in via Instagram:
“Records are there to be broken, and Max is breaking them all. But Damon has a point – the sport needs more teams capable of winning on any given weekend.”
Social media split into two camps almost immediately.
Verstappen fans fired back with memes of Hill’s 1996 Williams being “the most dominant car of its era,” while others pointed out that F1 viewership hit an all-time high in 2025, with an average of 112 million viewers per race weekend – proof, they argued, that dominance doesn’t kill interest.
Yet the counter-hashtags #F1IsBoring and #SaveF1FromProcessions trended just as hard, with thousands of longtime fans echoing Hill’s threat to walk away.
The timing couldn’t be worse for Liberty Media and the FIA.
With the 2026 regulation overhaul looming – promising closer racing, lighter cars, and active aerodynamics – Hill’s outburst has turned into the loudest possible alarm bell.
Sources inside the FIA confirm emergency talks have already begun about potential mid-season tweaks for 2026, including further restrictions on wind-tunnel time for the leading team and possible success ballast concepts.
Stefano Domenicali, F1 CEO, issued a carefully worded statement Monday morning:
“We respect Damon’s passion and his place in our history. Max’s achievements this year have been extraordinary, but we are fully aware that the health of the sport depends on competitive balance. The 2026 regulations were designed precisely to deliver closer racing, and we are confident they will.”
Whether that confidence is shared by the fans remains to be seen.
For now, one thing is certain: Damon Hill’s 11-word post-race rant has done what 19 Verstappen victories couldn’t – it has united the F1 world in fierce, passionate debate.
Some call it ungrateful. Others call it the wake-up call the sport desperately needed.
Either way, as the sun set on another season of Dutch supremacy, the 1996 world champion walked away from the Yas Marina paddock muttering the words that will define the entire 2025 campaign:
“If nothing changes, I’m done.”
And if a champion of Hill’s stature is prepared to switch off his TV, how many millions might follow?
The clock to 2026 is ticking louder than ever.
