Fernando Alonso believes size matters in F1, but George Russell begs to differ, insisting the weight of the sport's current generation of cars is more of a detrimental factor.
Alonso argued recently that F1 should be focused on reducing the size of its machines, which would improve close wheel-to-wheel battles between drivers out on the track.
"I don’t think it [reducing the weight] would change much the show," explained the Spaniard who raced much smaller cars during his first years in F1, two decades ago.
"I think it’s more the size of the cars than the weight of the cars, which makes things a little bit more difficult.
"Overtaking, fights into the first couple of corners in the race, it is difficult now to position the car, just because the size of it, not because the weight of the car."
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Russell acknowledged that size is a factor, but mainly on tight street circuits such as Monaco or Singapore. The Mercedes charger believes F1 would make performance and safety gains with lighter machines.
"I think there are two factors: one, performance, you want the lightest cars possible for pure enjoyment of driving the cars," he said.
"I mentioned it before about the safety aspect, making the cars safer, but they go heavier and heavier as well.
"If you’re doing 100 miles an hour, but you’ve got a car that weighs the same weight as a bus, and you crash into something versus a smart car, the bus is going to do more damage.
"This is where the engineers within F1 and the FIA need to find the perfect compromise. I don’t find the size of the car such an issue, it’s only Singapore, Monaco that you really feel the size of them.
"I think they look cool to be honest when I compare with the smaller hybrid era cars. I still think probably the 2004 era or 2007/8 was the best-looking cars.
"Perhaps it’s a little bit too big, but I don’t feel strongly [about it]."
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