Drivers want F1 to start listening to their opinions
barcelona — Drivers are getting tired of having no voice in Formula One.
F1’s top drivers are calling for those in charge of the series to start paying attention to what they have to say when it comes to improving the sport.
A few days after defending champion Lewis Hamilton complained that nobody asked for their advice while putting together a track layout for the proposed race in Miami next year, four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel expressed his frustration about the lack of involvement of the drivers in the decision-making process for upcoming aerodynamic changes aimed to improve overtaking.
“I think you should ask us what we need to overtake,” Vettel said after Saturday’s qualifying session for the Spanish Grand Prix. “I mean, we are drivers. Not to say that we know everything, we don’t know anything about engineering the car, but we know how the cars feel, how to drive the cars. And their limitations to overtake. But we’re not really asked.”
F1 recently announced changes to the wings and brake ducts to make it easier for cars to follow each other, which theoretically should improve racing. The changes should make cars go a second and a half slower, however.
Vettel said it was “a bit comical” how F1 was going back and forth with its changes to try to make the series more exciting.
“In 2009, we went, ‘Let’s go less aerodynamics and better racing,’ and in fact I think it didn’t change too much,” Vettel said. —