Leading drivers reject radical plans to revolutionise F1
Eddie Irvine and David Coulthard along with Colombia’s Juan Pablo Montoya spoke out at proposals aimed at improving the spectacle put forward by motorsport chiefs Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone.
The plans outlined in a letter to teams include penalising successful drivers like Michael Schumacher with a weight penalty once they reach a set points target.
But far more radical is a proposal every driver should drive for every team in the first 10 races of a season, raising the prospect of Schumacher in a Minardi and Alex Yoong behind the wheel of a Ferrari.
‘‘That’s a non-starter’’, said Irvine in Japan last night ahead of Sunday’s final race of a season which has been dominated and, at times, turned into a farce by Ferrari and which has resulted in falling television viewing figures.
‘‘How can I go and stand in the Jaguar showroom having driven a Ferrari? Or Michael, the image of Ferrari, and he is driving around in a Minardi in the Monaco Grand Prix.’’
Montoya backed up Irvine by saying the idea was crazy, adding: ‘‘Then it’s more about luck. I am signed with Williams because I believe Williams is a great team and in the history (of the sport) it is one of the best, if not the best team.
‘‘I know all the guys and the mechanics and I love being part of Williams and I’d probably end up driving for Arrows, or Minardi, or something, qualifying 20th on the grid when I know I have got the performance to qualify on pole, it would not be fair.
‘‘If the best drive you can find is Minardi then get on with it but if you end up signing for a team like Williams and drive for them it would be crazy. The sponsors would not like that, where are they going to promote?’’
Coulthard said: ‘‘There have been speculative ideas, some of them a bit silly. The knee-jerk reaction of putting in ballast and trying to handicap to improve the show I don’t think is right.
‘‘I think it goes against what Formula One stands for which is a set of regulations of which people with the cleverest minds and the best budgets do the best job.’’
Montoya was just as critical of the proposal that a driver who is too far ahead in the championship could be slowed by adding ballast to his car.
‘‘I think the racing would be good but it wouldn’t be fair for the teams that build a great car,’’ added Montoya, who believes a major problem is the fact Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello are not allowed to race by Ferrari.
‘‘In the history of F1 whoever does the best job should win and you will take that away.
Irvine insisted the governing body should revolutionise the way the millions of pounds from television money is shared between the teams by giving more to the smaller outfits.
‘‘At the end of the day why give Ferrari maybe 15 times as much money as you give Minardi and then give them a load of lead to stick in the car to make it go slow,’’ added Irvine.
‘‘It is probably a better idea to give the smaller teams an equal share of the money. It won’t allow them to beat Ferrari but it will pull them up a bit.
‘‘The weight thing is having a rising scale going against success which I think is a bit wrong.
‘‘But if you had all the money and split it differently it would make a lot of difference to the Minardis, Saubers and Jordans of this world and make damn all difference to the teams up there.’’
Mosley has warned the teams that F1 cannot stand on tradition if the future of the sport is to be secured.
‘‘There is a large number of very radical proposals that have been circulated to the teams for discussion,’’ he said earlier this week.
‘‘Some of these are very speculative ideas and we have to talk to the teams about them, but we mustn’t sit there and not talk about things.
‘‘There is an argument for each driver driving each car once. This has an advantage because then we would see who are the best drivers and teams and if there are means to make it more interesting for the public then we have to talk about them.’’
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