Ecclestone wants to tear up the rulebook

Formula One is on the brink of yet another new dawn.

In 2014, Formula One dumped the old out-of-date V8 aspirated engines that technology wise had nothing to offer for the manufacturers.

Formula One has always been at the forefront of technology and innovation and the likes of Renault and Mercedes wanted that to continue in F1.

This brought about the new era of the V6 Turbo-Hybrid power-unit, an era that enticed Honda back to the sport.

But due to rules in Formula One being designed by committee, the new regulations were overly complex and created an expensive system to go motor racing.

They also saw the engines decrease in noise, as noise is wasted energy, harvesting that power to re-use might be clever and the future, but it isn’t sexy and Formula One has been criticised by those used to the scream of the old engines.

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has never been in favour of the new engines and once again he’s voiced his opinion on the matter.

‘[FIA president] Jean Todt thinks they are the spirit of our times, and this may be true for normal road cars. But in F1, people want to see something special.

‘They want to have noisy, powerful engines that can be managed only by the best drivers in the world. You don’t put orthopedic shoes onto your pro football players, do you, just because these kinds of shoes are popular in everyday life?’ Ecclestone told Sport Bild as quoted by motorsport.com.

Engine development should improve over the winter, the token system isn’t in place due to the other regulation changes and a number of teams believe they have a chance of changing the recent order.

Red Bull Racing believe they can challenge Mercedes, with both the new aerodynamic regulations aiding them and an improved power-unit from Renault.

Even McLaren Honda are optimistic.

Bernie however…….

‘Red Bull believe they can beat Mercedes with better aerodynamics, However, I’m not so sure about that.

‘Mercedes’ advantage on the engine side still is large. Because of this we have to introduce new engine rules as soon as possible.

Bernie doesn’t want to stop with just changes to engine rules either: ‘The rules must be changed: all of them, They are too complicated. We are in the entertainment business. But how are we supposed to entertain people when the audience doesn’t understand a thing any more?

‘Even the drivers don’t know anymore what they can and cannot do on track. Sometimes I think the rule book just says: ‘Don’t race!’ But let them touch from time to time, so what? Let the drivers handle it themselves.’

Ecclestone even fancies having two races instead of one: ‘The attention period of young people is shorter than in the past, Therefore it makes more sense to divide the race into two sprints. Two times 40 minute racing is more attractive to a TV audience than a boring grand prix.’