Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFormula 1

F1 changes should be ‘what the kids want’

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Williams chief technical officer Pat Symonds says any changes to the Formula One regulations should be “what the kids want”.

The F1 Commission discussed a potential change to regulations which could be introduced to make cars look more like the designs of the late 1980s and early 1990s with wider cars and larger rear tyres. While Symonds is happy to see the sport change to progress, he says any changes should be made with the future in mind rather than the past.

”I’d be against big changes in 2016, it’s too late for big changes then,” Symonds said. “I’m not against big changes for 2017, providing it’s done for the right reasons but I don’t want retro racing. If we’re going to change let’s do it for what the kids want rather than what the granddads want.”

And Symonds believes F1 has not helped itself by failing to promote the impressive achievements within the sport.

“The power units from 2014 are staggering pieces of equipment which have pushed the boundaries massively. I think it is such a shame that we are not talking more about that.

“We can’t get too nerdy, technical but we can talk about the smaller amount of fuel used. But instead we talk about the noise of the power units which for me is not the way to go about promoting Formula 1.”

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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.