Hamilton: Closer racing not harder racing is what F1 needs

Lewis Hamilton feels the Formula 1 drivers are united on their demands from the 2021 rules shake-up and says the technical rules must be designed to encourage closer racing rather than making the cars harder to drive in order to improve the sport.

The reigning F1 world champion was present at the recent FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Paris last month to oversee the 2021 proposals as a representative of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association.

Hamilton, who is keen to leave a positive legacy in F1, feels all the F1 drivers are eager to help craft technical rules and regulations which allow cars to follow each other closely rather than be badly hit by running in dirty air behind cars which creates aerodynamic instability and compromises tyre performance.

“I think what’s really important right now is that the drivers are unified for the first time since I’ve been in the sport,” Hamilton said at Silverstone.

“We’re all together as kind of a union and sort of working together with the FIA and hoping that we can have a positive impact on the rules in 2021. So we kind of need to make sure we stay on top of that and stay a part of it.”

While calls to make F1 cars more physical, and theoretically harder to drive, Hamilton feels that idea misses the point on improving racing and is looking to find rules which provide closer racing.

“There are definitely subtle changes we can do for sure to make the car a little bit even more physical than it is,” he said. “It’s by no means easy for us to drive and definitely not taking power steering away would not be key but I think we could probably reduce it if we needed to do.

“We currently have the option to do that but there’s no need because it doesn’t really make a difference for us really.

“I think there’s a lot of other aspects and ultimately if the racing was closer it would really improve racing so that’s key for us.”

Daniel Ricciardo has backed up Hamilton’s 2021 calls by explaining the current problems F1 drivers face during races when fighting against other cars.

“If it was all a bit closer that’s great, but it’s just the ability to follow. I guess it’s two-fold now,” he said. “You get close to another car, you lose a chunk of downforce but then also your tyres start to overheat.

“That then loses you an additional amount of grip so you’re kind of fighting against those two negative forces which don’t help.”

F1’s 2021 rule changes are expected to be officially confirmed in October following the delay announced after the FIA meeting in Paris last month.