Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsWilliams

Massa warns against making cars too quick

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Felipe Massa warns the Strategy Group's plan to make cars up to six seconds faster in 2017 "is a little bit too much".

Following a meeting of the Strategy Group last week, it was announced there are plans to dramatically increase the speed of the cars while also bringing back refuelling. Massa says he would like the cars to be quicker, but hopes the main focus is on ensuring drivers can fight each other on track.

"Maybe five or six seconds is a little bit too much, but for sure we want to be as fast as we can in the cars," Massa said. "For sure we want competition in the cars as well. I remember before when we had a lot of downforce that you didn’t even see overtaking in the race. Maybe now with the DRS it helps, but this is the only doubt we need to understand.

"They have moved it but they need to keep it in a good way. I think the engine, we already have good power, but maybe we are going to have a bit more, which is fine to have. I think maybe more important than the power is the noise, because if you improve one second the people in the grandstand don’t understand. If you are one or two seconds quicker and more interesting to watch or not, then this is a good point as well."

And Massa warns there could be a downside to making the cars so much faster if it prevents close racing.

"After 2004 we have just been getting a little bit slower because we have changed aerodynamically and also tyres to be slower. It’s not so difficult to make them a little bit more quicker and more interesting. If you put the cars too quick and you don’t see overtaking you will complain as well. It needs to be done in the proper way."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.