Steiner: ‘Crazy’ F1 format changes won’t improve show

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner says radical Formula 1 format experiments will never improve the competitiveness and show aspects of the sport as long as teams have huge performance advantages.

During the build-up to the United States Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton suggested F1 should experiment with new formats if the F1 world titles are wrapped up giving teams little to fight for. Ideas recently suggested have been a sprint race on Saturday along with reverse grids as seen in Formula 2 for its Sunday sprint races.

Haas boss Steiner, who is currently involved in the tight F1 midfield battle for fourth place in the world constructors’ championship, says no amount of ‘spice’ through format alterations will work and pointed to his long-held belief a team budget cap is the only way create closer racing.

“How many times did a Mercedes or a Ferrari start last and after five laps they were in the top four?” Steiner asked. “It will not change with a reverse grid. A reverse grid is a little bit of ‘oh yeah that sounds interesting and good’, but is it good?

“To spice it up you just have to get a more level playing field. That is the only thing that can spice the show up in my opinion. The only way to get to that one is a budget cap.

“We don’t need to do anything crazy with mixing or lotteries. That will not spice the show up because the top three teams are just so much faster than even if they start last they will still end up first. We have seen this. If he likes to spice it up, but what we can do is just make the Mercedes 1.5 seconds slower and it will be very spicy!”

Steiner has also held reservations around the 2019 F1 rule tweaks to simplify front and rear wings to reduce aerodynamic wake in order to allow cars to follow each other closely.

The 2019 F1 technical regulations were officially published by the FIA last week with the headline tweaks of the tighter rules for front and rear wings plus the use of auxiliary oil tanks.

“It will take time to settle in. It is not like we put it in there and the next thing very thing will be fantastic with one change in the rules,” he said. “We design our car for next year, which apparently should make overtaking easier, we were sold on a fantastic next year in Australia. It will not be. The silver bullet will not work in my opinion.

“Again I love to be proven wrong, but I said from the beginning that Australia it is just difficult to overtake, and nothing will change. Or take the wings completely off the cars and then they can overtake.”