Abu Dhabi: Ex-Formula One drivers Martin Brundle and Johnny Herbert believe aerodynamics on cars should be standardised in order to restore parity between teams.
Speaking in the paddock at the Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the Sky Sports pundits both agreed that a ‘unified approach’ to airflow would prompt a much-needed return of wheel-to-wheel racing.
The Englishmen’s comments follow a season where Mercedes have dominated winning 15 of the 18 races so far this season, with Lewis Hamilton clinching 10 of those victories and Nico Rosberg getting five. Only Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel has challenged that stranglehold with three wins.
Eleven of the 18 races so far this season have seen the person who got pole position go on to win the race, sparking fears events were becoming more of a procession.
“Clearly, we need to see cars side-to-side and nose-to-tail more often that’s what the fans want to see, the drivers are gladiators and the fans want to see them fighting,” said Brundle, 56, who got nine podiums in 158 starts during his F1 career, which lasted 12 years from 1984 to 1996.
“In order to achieve that the aerodynamics have got to change. The way the sport is set up, the haves and have nots are getting further and further apart and it’s a major, major issue,” he added.
Herbert, 51, who got three wins and seven podiums from 161 starts in an 11-year career from 1989 to 2000, agreed.
“If you standardised the wings and everyone had the same I think the gap would come down a little bit,” he said. “Mercedes spend the most on development [on aerodynamics] on these beautifully crafted pieces of art that are very expensive, and they claim that we’ll see a five second difference by 2017. But as fans would you and I see that difference? It doesn’t bring much to show.”
Brundle chipped in: “The perennial problem F1 has is its identity: is it a sport, is it a technology showcase or is it a business? But the easy answer is it’s a sport, because without the fans we wouldn’t be here.
“And they have to re-balance that gulf between teams but I’m not sure they can anymore, that’s the biggest problem. The mechanism to change things is seriously flawed so you have to assume the mechanism to change the mechanism is going to be flawed as well.”
Asked to explain, Brundle said: “Just with the process everything has to go through to change something. The voting system — there are three levels to change things — and everything is run by committee. Also teams have become closely involved, you shouldn’t have teams running the business and making regulation, that’s fundamentally unhealthy. But teams have engaged in that because they’ve felt they’ve needed to.”
