Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

Fans have lost respect for drivers - Ricciardo

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Daniel Ricciardo says changes are needed in F1 because he believes fans have lost some respect for drivers.

Following the Strategy Group meeting last week which saw a number of regulation changes proposed, the main focus has been on making the cars five or six seconds quicker per lap and bringing back refuelling. Ricciardo says drivers are having to drive too slowly on high fuel at the start of races at present, and he feels the planned changes would see fans more impressed by the drivers' talents once again.

"It doesn’t feel fast and we know it’s not going very quick, particularly at the start," Ricciardo said. "We know Formula One can be better in that respect and this will help. By the sounds of it these things will probably go through and it sounds like it’s all going to go ahead.

"So from a driver’s point of view I don’t see any negatives, I think we all want it. We’d love to go harder for longer and it should be good. We need to go faster. I think for the fans as well we’ll gain the respect back that maybe potentially we’ve lost a little bit from them.”

And Ricciardo admits it is frustrating for drivers to be lapping so slowly in the opening laps and he wants to feel a bigger physical challenge when inside the car.

“I think if it makes the race faster and it makes lap times quicker and we don’t have to drive around nearly at GP2 pace at the start of the race I think that’s a good thing. I’ve never raced with refuelling so I don’t know if there’s any negatives to come from that from a driver’s point of view, but I think the race pace needs to be increased.

"Also from a physical side, the races now are not easy, we still sweat and get out of the car feeling like we’ve done a workout, but I think to be on that extra level it would help to make it a bit more of a challenge. So it sounds like it’s going in the right direction.”

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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.