The Haas F1 team have today unveiled their livery for the forthcoming 2019 season, introducing a fresh design in what they are calling a ‘New Era’ for the team.
In a contrast to last year’s predominantly white car, the new Haas will be black and gold – similar to the Lotus Renault which raced between 2011 and 2015. The reason for the enticing change is Haas’ new title sponsor, Rich Energy, the company that tried to buy out the financially stricken Force India Team before it was rescued by a consortium lead by Lawrence Stroll. The car, unveiled by drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean, is the 2018 car with the new livery and the new front wing design. We will see the complete new 2019 car during winter testing in Barcelona.
William Storey, Rich Energy CEO, described Haas as “the perfect team to try and challenge Red Bull on and off the track”, while French driver Romain Grosjean said the engineers “have been working really hard back at the factory making sure that we have a really good car for the year.” Kevin Magnussen’s typically laid back assessment was that “it looks cool. It looks fast. It looks angry.”
Haas F1 Media
Haas finished last season fifth in the constructors’ standings on 93 points – a 46 point improvement on their performance in 2017 – with Kevin Magnussen scoring 56 points, while an impressive turnaround from a woeful start to the year saw Romain Grosjean end the year on 37 points.
Last year, Haas announced Rich Energy as their title sponsor, and the new livery sees Haas embark on a new partnership and the start of what they hope is a journey to the top of Formula One.
The American team will still have Ferrari as their engine supplier, and will be using the 2019 spec engine.
Following on from my colleague Dimitris’ thoughts last week, I thought would share my own.
Pierre Gasly will win a race this season
I feel that the Frenchman will take his first victory this season – he is an under-rated driver, and he had some outstanding performances last year, especially in Bahrain. Winning isn’t something that is new to him, as he won the final GP2 championship before it became F2. In 2019, Pierre will have the machinery to win like he did then.
Williams will be much closer to the midfield
Williams have been in F1 since 1977, and suffered one of their worst showings last year considering they scored the least points out of the ten teams in the sport. I have a feeling that with the lovely return story of Robert Kubica, and with George Russell being dubbed the next big British thing in F1, they will be in the mix a lot more. The cars are heading to a more simpler format which will also help designers at the squad in Oxfordshire.
Glenn Dunbar/Williams F1 ref: Digital Image _31I9371
Bottas will finish sixth in the championship
Valtteri Bottas has been taking up a spot of rallying in the off-season, trying his hand at a new driving challenge. The Finn will once more be second best not only at the Silver Arrows squad in Brackley but across the top three teams. This could be his last season not only in the team but in the sport, especially with Russell and Ocon both around. That would lead to the question that would be on everyone’s lips in the off-season – who will Mercedes replace Bottas with?
Leclerc will be on the podium in Monaco
The Monegasque driver has a woeful record in his home country, the principality of Monaco. In the three races across F2 and F1 he hasn’t seen the chequered flag, being involved in incidents both his and not his fault. It will change for Charles this year. Not only he will finish the race, but we will see him on the rostrum. On the back of this this we will see him find an extra few tenths in future races. Will he be a champion in the sport one day?
Ferrari Media
Ferrari will win Constructors Championship
I am unsure at this stage who will win the drivers’ championship of 2019 but feel Ferrari will be top of the pile when it comes to the constructors’. Mercedes are saying that they are building a whole new engine from scratch, and they might feel some teething problems. Their reliability in the hybrid era has been brilliant but things do change. Mercedes are very much behind Hamilton but Ferrari now have Vettel and Leclerc on board. I just think their partnership is stronger.
There are my thoughts on the 2019 season – only time will tell if I’m correct.
[Featured image – Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool]
Former F1 drivers Pascal Wehrlein and Brendon Hartley have been named as Ferrari’s new simulator drivers alongside Davide Rigon and Antonio Fuoco.
Brendon Hartley raced for Toro Rosso in the last four races of 2017 and for the whole of 2018 before being unceremoniously dropped from their line-up. In 2019, alongside his role in the Ferrari simulator, he will once again make up part of Porsche’s factory driver program, with a potential return to the World Endurance Championship – where he won the LMP1 title in 2015 and 2017 – on the cards.
Wehrlein last competed in F1 in 2017 for the Sauber team, and now races for Mahindra in Formula E. Rumours had linked him with Ferrari ever since it was announced that the ties between himself and Mercedes had been cut in September of last year.
Pascal Wehrlein (D), Sauber F1 Team. Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace.
As mentioned, the pair will join Davide Rigon and Antonio Fuoco at the Scuderia. Rigon has worked in the Ferrari simulator since 2014, whilst Fuoco has long been a part of the Ferrari Driver Academy and took part in F2 last year.
Speaking of the signings, team principal Mattia Binotto said, “Our team has taken on four undoubtedly talented drivers, who possess innate feeling, with a strong understanding of race cars and tracks. These are exactly the qualities required in the skillful role of driving in a simulator, one of the vital pieces of equipment in the Formula 1 of today.”
The 2019 F1 season is almost upon us, with winter testing starting in a couple of weeks and the Australian Grand Prix commencing next month. It’s the perfect time for five early predictions, some of which are pretty long shots.
1. Charles Leclerc will take three wins
Ferrari has a new kid on the block. Charles Leclerc spent his rookie season at Sauber, but from 2019 it’s time for his dream to come true. That could prove to be immensely stressful for the young Monegasque, but he may rise to the occasion and even take some wins. If Ferrari is at least on the same level as it was in 2018, then Leclerc could be able to snatch one, two, or even threewins in his first season with a big team, cementing his position at Maranello and proving his talent once again.
2. Nico Hulkenberg will take his first podium
It’s something of a mystery how Nico Hulkenberg, a driver who has been in teams with podium potential, has never finished in the top three. But, with Renault constantly improving and with a bit of luck (after all, it is needed as well), the Hulk could finally take that podium finish he truly deserves.
Nico Hulkenberg (GER) Renault Sport F1 Team on the grid. German Grand Prix, Sunday 22nd July 2018. Hockenheim, Germany.
3. Red Bull-Honda will not be in the top three
The all-new collaboration between Red Bull and Honda is one of the hottest topics ahead of the new season, and rightfully so. Honda has proven to be a bit of a ‘wild one’, especially on the reliability front, and Red Bull could be its next victim. Everyone acknowledges the fact that Red Bull is great in designing an aerodymanically efficient car (Adrian Newey is still the best out there), but this could not be enough for them to stay in the top three. Maybe Renault could step up…
4. Alfa Romeo Racing will be in the top five
The Alfa Romeo-Sauber collaboration worked out perfectly for both sides during the 2018 campaign, with the team finishing seventh in the final standings. Now, with the all-new Alfa Romeo branding, Kimi Raikkonen on board and excellent technical staff, the prospect of them finishing in the top five is not such an absurd thought. After all, the backing from ‘sister’ team Ferrari is certain and could prove vital.
Charles Leclerc, Alfa Romeo Sauber C37 at Formula One World Championship, Rd20, Brazilian Grand Prix, Race, Interlagos, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday 11 November 2018.
5. Mercedes will not be champions
Finally, the most bold of these predictions sees Mercedes not taking its sixth world championship in a row as a constryctor. Maybe Lewis Hamilton will be the drivers’ champion, but his team may be hurt by Valtteri Bottas’ incompetence. Ferrari has, on paper at least, a strong line-up, and so does Red Bull and Renault (if we count the French team as a real threat), so Mercedes is really on the ropes on this one.
Less than 40 days remain until the season opener in Albert Park, and the nine-month journey around the world begins for the F1 circus.
The team previously known as Sauber Alfa Romeo F1 Team has announced its renaming as Alfa Romeo Racing ahead of the 2019 season.
A partnership between Sauber and Alfa Romeo was forged prior to 2018, and resulted in the team finishing P8 in the constructors’ championship thanks to the efforts of its drivers Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson.
Today’s announcement, however, means that the Sauber name will disappear from the F1 grid after 25 years in the sport. It first appeared back in 1993, and survived even when BMW bought the team in 2006.
“It is a pleasure to announce that we will enter the 2019 Formula One World Championship with the Team name Alfa Romeo Racing,” said team principal Frederic Vasseur. “After initiating the collaboration with our title sponsor Alfa Romeo in 2018, our team made fantastic progress on the technical, commercial and sporting side.
“This has given a boost of motivation to each team member, be that track-side or at the headquarter in Switzerland, as the hard work invested has become reflected in our results. We aim to continue developing every sector of our team while allowing our passion for racing, technology and design to drive us forward.”
Charles Leclerc, Alfa Romeo Sauber C37 at Formula One World Championship, Rd20, Brazilian Grand Prix, Practice, Interlagos, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Friday 9 November 2018.
Alfa Romeo was last involved in F1 back in 1985, and is best known for its title-winning campaigns in F1’s first two seasons in 1950 and 1951. In 2019, its drivers will be 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen, and Ferrari junior Antonio Giovinazzi.
Michael Manley, CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automotives, said, “Alfa Romeo Racing is a new name with a long history in Formula One. We’re proud to collaborate with Sauber in bringing Alfa Romeo’s tradition of technical excellence and Italian panache to the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Make no mistake: with Kimi Räikkönen and Antonio Giovinazzi on one side of the pit wall and Alfa Romeo and Sauber expertise on the other, we are here to compete.”
The F1 Promoters Organisation (F1PA) have stated their discontent at the current state of Formula One and their worries over the future of the sport.
In a scathing assessment of Formula One, there is a concern that the money F1PA is feeding into F1 to help host F1 races is going to be an unfruitful gamble, as they are unsure of the direction the sport is being taken by owners Liberty Media, and therefore weather F1 will be financially worth the investment for them. This concern is made ever more prominent by the fact that F1PA organises 16 of the current 21 races on the Formula One calendar.
One of those races is the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The managing director of the Silverstone Circuit, Stuart Pringle, is also the chairman of the F1PA, and he has explained that the Organisation is “disgruntled” and that “we have great concerns over the future of the sport under the people who run it now.”
A particular reason for this unhappiness from the F1PA surrounding the sport has been cited as the lack of free-to-air coverage. As it is at the moment, German broadcaster RTL is the only free-to-air broadcaster showing all F1 races live, while in Italy, free-to-air TV has all but disappeared altogether – extremely unsettling considering that Italy was the second-biggest TV market for F1 in Europe. In the UK, Channel 4 has lost live coverage for every race bar the British Grand Prix in 2019, with Sky taking exclusive rights to the rest of the races – Channel 4 will show highlights of the other 20 races as per the contract Sky signed in 2016 during Bernie Ecclestone’s reign at the helm of the sport.
Live TV views on Channel 4 dropped from 2.13 million in 2017 in 2017 to 2.10 in 2018 – Channel 4 broadcasted 10 live races in both years.
This particular statistic would certainly go in the F1PA’s favour, but the other statistics seem to show that, actually, the concern over TV coverage may not have as much substance as we might think. 611,000 viewers chose to watch Sky’s coverage in 2018 in races that they shared with Channel 4. On average, Sky’s viewing figures increased by 2.6 percent on 2017. This is an impressive stat considering that some of the mid-season races happened at a time when England Football Team were playing at the World Cup.
Max Verstappen kicks a football. Image courtesy of Dan Istitene/Getty Images via Redbull Content Pool
Overall, comparing the last two years, Sky’s average audience increased while Channel 4’s audience decreased, suggesting that the transition from free-to-air to pay TV may not be as drastic for F1 as is currently being made out.
However there is still ambiguity as to whether next year will represent positive viewing figures for F1 now that the coverage has switched to Pay TV. The extreme likelihood is that the change will not go anywhere towards enticing new viewers, and with the risk of current viewers falling out of love with the sport, this is a very dangerous time for Formula One.
It is this uncertainty which has prompted F1PA to express their damming views on the sport, and call into question whether the 16 races they fund, including historic races like Brazil, Italy and Britain, are worth the time and money, which brings into question what the future holds for our sport and, more chillingly, whether there is a future at all.
Also cited was Liberty Media’s plan to hold a Miami race, leaving many fearing that F1 is being taken excessively towards an American audience, and further away from its worldwide audience.
It what is a very important day for the sport, the F1PA will forward these concerns to F1 bosses in London today (Tuesday, 29 January).
Featured image courtesy of Sebastian Marko/Red Bull Content Pool
Ordinarily, we go into F1 seasons asking the cliché question of whether Lewis Hamilton achieve greatness this year. The truth is that this question has been rendered absolutely redundant – he has already well and truly done that. The question as we go into a new season in Formula One is: will Hamilton retain the championship crown this year and further cement an already-undeniably brilliant legacy, or will 2019 finally be the year of the Prancing Horse?
Certainly, Ferrari’s progress has been very telling. In 2015 Mercedes, on average, out-qualified Ferrari by 0.7 seconds – a mammoth margin – but Ferrari were right on par with their German counterparts in 2018, often beating them to top spot.
The same could be said about 2017 too, and there were many occasions – particularly in the early going of the season – when we thought that it might just be the year of Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel, only for Hamilton and Mercedes’ prowess and excellence under pressure to shine through and steal the show, leaving the Italian giants empty-handed.
Ferrari Media
What has generally gone wrong for Ferrari is a combination of cruel luck, self-inflicted damage, and moments of utter stupidity and notable madness. In races such as Singapore 2017 and Germany 2018, Vettel has completely lost his cool and cracked under pressure – something not to be expected of a man who so impressively took four titles under the immense pressure of a field adorned at one stage by five other world champions.
Vettel’s errors in races like Italy, Japan, USA, France and the aforementioned Germany had a quite frankly shocking impact on the complexity of what turned out to be a remarkably one-sided championship battle last year. After the Japanese Grand Prix, it was calculated that Vettel would have been 13 points ahead of Hamilton in the lead of the title race at that stage had everything gone to plan. Instead, he was instead 67 behind. Of course then, we could bring up Hamilton’s DNF in Austria, or the untimely Virtual Safety Car (VSC) in Australia, which saw Vettel snatch the lead away from Hamilton that day. It makes for painful reading for Vettel.
Yet, while toiling in the misery of once again losing out to Hamilton in the championship battle, Vettel will have to take heart from the fact that, aside from the mistakes, the Ferrari might just be fundamentally better than the Mercedes, and provided Ferrari can maintain their rousing progress with the car. 2019 may just be Ferrari’s best chance yet of winning their first silverware since way back in 2008 when they won the Constructor’ title.
While all the talk is about Vettel and Hamilton, though, let’s not forget the dark horses (or dark arrow in the instance of one of them) of Valtteri Bottas and Charles Leclerc.
Ferrari Media
Bottas is on a quest to find some much-needed form if he wants to be able to compete for the World Championship this year and step out of the imposing shadow of team- mate Lewis Hamilton. The Finn, who has looked somewhat innocuous in the title race for the past couple of seasons, knows that this is last chance saloon if he is to seal a drive with the champions for 2020.
And not many drivers can say that just their 22nd race in their F1 career was in Ferrari colours, but this is a stat that Charles Leclerc will be able to proudly exult. The Monegasque enjoyed a remarkable first season with Sauber last year, earning him a spot with the Maranello team and swapping places with Kimi Raikkonen. He is largely tipped for greatness in the sport, and the godson of Jules Bianchi would like nothing more than to prove to Ferrari that he will not bow down as Vettel’s sidekick, and that he himself can be the brave gladiator who finally topples Hamilton and Mercedes.
With that being said, let’s bring a Bull into the Colosseum, shall we? The Austrian beast with Japanese racing history racing through its veins certainly cannot be counted out, as Red Bull seek to finally mount a serious title challenge with Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly, putting an end to the mere satisfaction of a couple of race wins.
This could be one of the most exciting seasons we’ve ever seen in Formula One. It’s certainly bubbled up nicely, but will there be an explosion of life into the championship battle when the lights go out in Australia?
A press release on the 18th January 2019 from Formula 1 Media announced that the TV and Digital audience has grown for the second consecutive year. With a reach of 490.2 million unique viewers throughout the 2018 season, the figures re-enforce Formula 1’s position as a powerhouse in motorsport.
The press release documents Formula 1’s increased popularity in Brazil, Germany and Italy which is hardly surprising given that the competition between Mercedes and Ferrari has become even tighter in the past few seasons. It also acknowledges a growth in social media platforms, increasing by a whopping 53.7% since 2017, which must come as excellent news to Formula 1’s owners Liberty Media, who put themselves in the driving seat in 2017.
News of an increase in viewing figures comes as a surprise to some, and indeed some journalists have been quick to fill in what F1 have been careful to omit. Reuters Formula 1 correspondent Alan Baldwin took to Twitter to discuss these findings, putting the growing figures to a change of measurement. According to Baldwin, F1 took the decision to change the duration of viewing time, lowering it from 15 consecutive minutes to the industry ‘standard’ of 3 minutes, which many believe could have potentially over inflated TV viewing figures.
The reported increase is almost a direct juxtaposition to the opinions of commentators, ex-drivers and fans who have frequently suggested the formula is no longer as appealing as it once was, expressing a desire to see more exciting racing and greater competition among the teams.
Ferrari Media
In a recent interview, ex-driver and Sky F1 commentator Martin Brundle expressed his own concerns about whether F1 was really doing enough to encourage competition and further interest in the sport: ‘We’re on a little Formula One island spending a lot of money to run 20 cars, and the drawbridge is up and I don’t see anybody waiting on the other side to come on’.
So why is there a disconnect between fans and commentators, and F1 bosses, and what could be done to bring down that metaphorical drawbridge?
The biggest issue for fans is the lack of real variety and competition in the sport. Upon hearing the news of a change in measurement, fans joked that it only took three minutes from the start of the race to figure out who was likely to win. If you’re a fan of Lewis Hamilton, it has been an excellent few years for you. However, others have grown tired of a very similar looking line-up each week, and are looking for change.
Some are of the belief that Formula 1 should take inspiration from their American cousins in the NTT IndyCar series, providing each team with a uniform car to develop each year as opposed to allowing teams to spend exorbitant amounts on existing cars. Teams such as Toro Rosso, Sauber and Force India are often seen running old technology in their cars, immediately putting them on the back foot when attempting to compete with teams like Mercedes and Ferrari. If IndyCar is anything to go by, giving each team the same car should create much more variety on the podium, and healthy and fair competition between the drivers.
Ferrari Media
Budget is also a huge issue in Formula 1. In the past ten years, fans have waved goodbye to a total of six teams who have failed to keep their cars on the grid due to a lack of results and racking up debts that cannot be settled without closure or repossession. Formula 1 favours the teams who can afford to invest large sums, and punishes those who cannot, so should this too be subject to a change?
Capping the amount a team can spend on their cars could give the smaller teams a greater opportunity to ‘catch-up’ not only on the grid, but in terms of the changes they can make on the car. Investing endless sums of money into finding a winning formula is bound to result in success at some point, take Mercedes as an example, but it also automatically relegates the smaller teams to the back of the grid, instead of challenging the big names and keeping the racing exciting.
In reality, getting the bigger more influential teams such as Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren to agree to these changes would be like having the turkeys vote in favour of Christmas. Indeed, if the F1 viewing figures continue to grow as they seem to be, Formula 1 bosses will probably argue there is no need to make such drastic reformations. Only time will tell.
Featured image – 2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Sunday / Steve Etherington
Mark Sutton is one of the best-known names in motorsport photography, being the the co-founder of Sutton Images, the largest independent motorsport picture agency in the world.
His interest in motorsport and in photography was piqued at a young age when his father took him to local race meets.
“My father Maurice was a huge [motorsport] fan and took us to our local circuit Oulton Park in Cheshire near Manchester,” he told us, “so you could say I was brought up on motorsports as a young boy, going to races in my dad’s MGT with his mates from work, who built aircraft like the Nimrod, Vulcan bomber and HS147.
“He always photographed me with racing drivers and cars as he was a keen amateur photographer, always taking photographs every weekend at the races and at home.”
It was this initial foray into the world of motorsport that led to Mark’s pursuit of a career in the industry, and in 1983 he attended his first race as a photographer.
Sutton Images | British Formula Three Championship, Oulton Park, England, 6 August 1983.
“My first race working as a photographer was the Formula Three race at Oulton Park in August 1983, covering the Ayrton Senna and Martin Brundle battle that year,” he said. “My brother had a contract as Senna’s photographer so I went along to assist him.”
Positioned at Cascades Corner, once the race started Mark found himself in the ideal spot to get a shot of the action.
“Brundle led at the start and after a few laps Senna lunged down the inside of the corner and they collided, and Senna landed on Brundle’s car. I have the frame of them side-by-side, but was shooting on a Praktica camera with no motor drive and this was in black and white.
“Then my next frame is them looking around the cars and those images were used all over the world as the story of the championship got bigger and bigger, and in fact it went down to the last round of the championship in Thruxton. It was a great start to my career at 18 years old!”
Sutton Images | British Formula Three Championship, Oulton Park F3, 6 August 1983
Just a few years later Mark made his move into the world of Formula One, and, out of the places he has visited in the few decades since, he highlighted Monaco and Spa-Francorchamps as two places he particularly enjoyed working at.
“The Monaco Grand Prix is my favourite track,” he said. “You can photograph the cars very close as it’s a very tight and twisty circuit that was first raced at in 1929 and has had different layouts, but the general feel is exactly the same. If a driver makes a mistake he is likely to cause a lot of damage to the car, and also it is very difficult to overtake.
“One of my favourite corners is Eau Rouge at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, which is a fast kink coming downhill from La Source and then into a hill going up. It offers you some very different opportunities to shoot different images with the speed of the cars and then the exit, sometimes with the cars sparking.”
When asked about the nature of the relationship between photographers when working at a track, Mark said, “There is great camaraderie between all photographers, as most of them have worked in F1 or motorsports for a long time and have grown to love the sport. Of course there is competition between us all, but that’s life in the business.
“I always laugh at the driver celebration photos when everyone is fighting for the same photo. Elbows get wider and then after, as we all check our photos, we recover from getting wet. It’s all very stressful to get the images, but is also a funny moment.”
Sutton Images | Mark Sutton (GBR) Photographer at Austrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Saturday 8 July 2017.
It goes without saying that at the heart of a photographer’s job is their equipment, and Mark pointed out that when it comes to upgrading, it isn’t necessarily as simple as immediately going for the highest quality camera.
“I tend to upgrade cameras every two to four years,” he said. “This really depends on how often Nikon brings out the new professional camera into the market, [but it] tends to be every four years now, as progress on the equipment has slowed down from creating the best configured camera with twelve frames per second and 22MB sensors. These offer huge files for both JPEG and RAW files, so the quality is good enough for all uses.
“There are better or higher quality cameras, but these are generally used in studio or still-life photography where subjects are not moving quickly. When a car is moving at 200 miles per hour you must be able to move with the subject and in most cases take multiple frames of the car either head-on or from the side, and that is where the twelve frames per second are essential.
“The Nikon D5 will shoot 4K videos as required, but we are not allowed to shoot moving footage at F1 races.”
Sutton Images | Formula One World Championship, Rd13, Belgian Grand Prix, Race, Spa Francorchamps, Belgium, Sunday 26 August 2018.
Equipment
X2 Nikon D5 bodies
Nikkor 200-400mm F4
Nikkor 500mm F4
Nikkor 70-200 F2.8
Nikkor 24-70mm F2.8
Nikkor 14-24mm F2.8
Nikkor 1.4x Mk3 converter
Nikkor 10.5mm F2.8 Fisheye
X2 Nikon speed light flash SB-910
Apple MacBook Pro
We thank Mark for taking the time to speak to us, and wish him all the best for 2019!
Featured image: Sutton Images | Mark Sutton, Sutton Images F1 Photographer at Formula One Testing, Day Two, Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, UAE, Wednesday 28 November 2018.
Martin Brundle has said that Formula One needs to make a much bigger step than is planned in 2019 to improve the racing show.
Wolfgang Wilhelm/Mercedes-AMG
Speaking about the 2019 season’s new aerodynamic regulations, the F1 veteran said he is unsure whether the changes will produce any real improvement in the number of on-track overtakes.
“A more simple front wing makes sense to me, [but] I think it needs a much bigger step. A massive step, actually. I can’t really see why we’ve done an interim 2019 because the cost is massive in terms of a brand new car for everybody.
“The big teams tell me they were going to do a new car anyway, but the small teams don’t. They have a lot of continuity of certain things like the chassis.
“It all looks like a lot of money spent, so if they’re not side-by-side and nose-to-tail more often, then it’s money wasted.”
Charles Coates, Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Brundle added that as well as its aerodynamic regulations, F1 needs to address the size of its grid to deliver a better show in the future:
“Back in the day, a Carlin, a DAMS, or an ART would have migrated into Formula One like Eddie Jordan did, for example, or Paul Stewart Racing with the Stewart team. Now we’ve got 20 [cars], and that’s more likely to become 18 than 22 from what I’ve seen at the moment. I see that as quite a peril.
“Ross Brawn used an expression, ‘We pulled up the drawbridge’. He’s absolutely right. We’re on a little Formula One island spending a lot of money to run 20 cars, and the drawbridge is up and I don’t see anybody waiting on the other side to come on. That’s a huge issue they need to address for the 2021 regulations.”
