Following last month's meeting in Paris, which saw Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg and Grand Prix Drivers' Association chairman, Alex Wurz, meet with senior officials from F1 and the FIA, as the drivers gave their input in terms of the 2021 rules package, a further meeting took place in Geneva this week at which Sebastian Vettel and Romain Grosjean represented their colleagues.

Speaking at Hockenheim, Grosjean revealed that there are four main areas of concern for the drivers as they look ahead to an overhaul of the regulations intended to level the playing field and improve the show, for fans as well as drivers.

"We've got four clear points of where we want to go," said the Frenchman, "and there were discussions of a few things that we thought were completely useless to us in terms of making the show better. So we just need to keep on going on those four points, and make sure we keep the pressure on and help F1 to get better.

"Four points presented by the GPDA, and four points that we've agreed on with every driver," he added. "It's difficult to go there when there is a question of the scope of the discussions with the others, because then it's your personal opinion. So it's a matter of the GPDA, 51 percent of the drivers say this is the direction we want to go, and this is the direction we want to go.

"Out of four points from the GPDA number one is the tyres," he revealed. "Number two is the aero. Number three is the weight, and number four is money between the teams.

"If you solve those four points, I think it will be f****** good," he smiled.

Asked about the return of refuelling, a move which is favoured by FIA president, Jean Todt, Grosjean said: "Nothing is agreed. GPDA, we want it, not because we think it's great for racing, but we need to help to bring the weight of the car down. So it's just a temporary fix to help make the cars 70kgs lighter or 60kgs at the start of the race, and not overheat the tyres.

"When I started in 2009 it was 605kgs," he continued, "and now we're 740-something. So it's 140kgs and you can feel the cars in the low speed corners are very heavy, and the start of the race is even more, 850, or something like that.

"We just feel it's too much for a Formula 1 car," he admitted. "I know we're talking about an 18 inch tyre, which is another 25kgs; a standard brake system, which is another 8kgs. So you are actually adding and adding, while what we want is to bring the weight down."

The Frenchman revealed that the drivers had actually proposed a change to the engine regulations, a move that would be favoured by most fans.

"This we were told was not an option," he said. "It's the first thing we brought up... bring back a V10 and you save 150kgs!"

Check out our Friday gallery from Hockenheim, here.

LATEST NEWS

more news >

LATEST IMAGES

galleries >

Click to go to the main galleries section

READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by sagosac, 01/08/2019 15:58

"...if you allow me some brainstorming"

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by sagosac, 01/08/2019 15:56

"...and if not a V10 (like not being series / production car / road relevant), we would be happy with a flat or Boxer 6- or 5-cylinder, too, I guess [anyone an idea, whether a flat or Boxer would work with 5 cylinders ? or 5 cylinders in a circle -- evening out all masses as good as possible (excuse me again, please !):]"

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

3. Posted by sagosac, 01/08/2019 15:46

"Well, considering that the combustion-tech is not exploited to its very MAX, why not ?
If being mated with a (non-standard) KERS, harvesting on front axle (= much more effective than on the rear) -- and then being adapted in alternating order one year with double turbo and the other in hi-revv-config :) [excuse me please, I am not an engine engineer => just dreaming ;]"

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

4. Posted by V10s4Me, 26/07/2019 12:07

"Great idea! Put the V10's back in the cars, give everyone plenty of fuel and decent tyres and let's get back to real racing. Formula E can go and hug the trees with their batteries."

Rating: Negative (-1) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2021 Rules: Drivers have four areas of concern

LATEST NEWS

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST IMAGES

POST A COMMENT

Post your comment

READERS COMMENTS

Share this page