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Ecclestone: rule changes won't hold Mercedes back

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has expressed fears that the forthcoming rule changes for the 2017 world championship will do little to stop another runaway victory for Mercedes.

"Mercedes' advantage on the engine side is still large, and because of this we have to introduce new engine rules as soon as possible," Ecclestone told German newspaper Bild this week.

"Red Bull believe they can beat Mercedes with better aerodynamics," he added. "However, I'm not so sure about that."

Ecclestone: We won't let the fans down!

Ecclestone said that in his view the sport needed to do away with hybrid engines in order to improve competition in Grand Prix events, a view that places him at odds with the FIA president.

"Jean Todt thinks [hybrids] are the spirit of our times, and this may be true for normal road cars, but in Formula One people want to see something special.

"They want to have noisy, powerful engines that can be managed only by the best drivers in the world.

"You don't put orthopaedic shoes onto your pro football players, do you, just because these kinds of shoes are popular in everyday life?"

Ecclestone went even further and added that Formula One needed a total revamp of its increasingly complex rules.

"The rules must be changed: all of them," he insisted. "They are too complicated. We are in the entertainment business. But how are we supposed to entertain people when the audience doesn't understand a thing any more?

"Even the drivers don't know any more what they can and cannot do on track. Sometimes I think the rule book just says: 'Don't race!' But let them touch from time to time, so what? Let the drivers handle it themselves."

Ecclestone also suggested that Formula One might consist of shorter races in future, with two 'sprint' races over the weekend replacing the traditional single Grand Prix format.

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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.