French Grand Prix – Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton says it’s not the fault of the drivers that Formula 1 is currently going through a period of stagnation on the racing front.
Speaking at the end of a dominant French Grand Prix, a race where Hamilton was able to pit from the lead and retain his position before coming home over ten seconds in front of his teammate, Hamilton spoke about how he felt bad decisions at the top level are responsible for the current lack of racing in the sport.
He said: “If you say that it’s boring, I totally understand it and I remember growing up watching.”
“Don’t point the fingers at the drivers because we don’t write the rules, we have nothing to do with the
money shifting, all that kind of stuff… should put the pressure on the people that are at the head, who
should be doing the job. I think they are trying to but for many, many years they’ve made bad decisions.”
Hamilton was one of two drivers (the other being Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg) who were invited to join the FIA and team bosses in Paris last week where the decision to postpone the 2021 Sporting and Technical Regulations confirmation until October of this year was announced.
Hamilton says that he is attempting to use his position and responsibility to improve things for everyone: “Do I have confidence that it’s going to shift massively? I have faith that it’s going to get better, I really,
really hope so and to the point that I went to Paris last week to get involved. I was in that meeting,
watching all the bosses of F1. I think there was the FIA and all the Formula One teams, and trying to get
involved in… I have nothing to gain by it by being there but if there’s anything I can help… they’ve been
making all these decisions and never once had a driver’s input in that room, so if that can be the decisive
point that helps shift it and the fans can get better racing, I will be proud to be a part of that.”
“We just go in there to try and be a guide and if we can be a part of the rudder when they come up with an idea we can say actually that would feel terrible in the car and they would be like ‘oh really.’ Was it encouraging? It was encouraging that they allowed us to be there and they were really, really welcoming, which was great, and I’m hoping that they will continue to have us there, some of us drivers or a couple of us drivers each time.”
“They’ve extended the decision of making the rules. I think they need to because they’re nowhere near where it should be in my opinion and they’ve got to make some serious changes to the decisions that they’ve already made of how 2021 should be. But what I’m encouraged by is that Ross and his team are working – for the first time – on a real aero package that hopefully will have an impact on following, for example. But as I said, the cars going heavier is not a great thing. We need to get the cars lower, I think. People really enjoyed the speed of the cars between the early 2000s I think it was. It still needs to be Formula One, the pinnacle of sport and the fastest cars that there are around the world.”
