GPDA chairman Alex Wurz says drivers want Formula 1 to be “like karting” in terms of the gap between the front and back of the grid.
Since the start of the hybrid era in 2014, a two-tier order has gradually developed with Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull at the front and the rest battling it out behind.
Indeed, no other team outside the big three has won a race since Kimi Raikkonen for Lotus at the 2013 Australian GP, while only nine drivers have claimed podiums for a midfield outfit since 2014.
That has led to frustration, particularly from those drivers only battling for seventh on pure pace each weekend, but Wurz claims that feeling is also felt by those who can challenge for victory.
“I can tell you that all drivers are of this opinion, even the ones in the most dominant cars say ‘we want Formula 1 to be as tight as possible on lap times’,” he told Sky Sports.
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“So from first to last, it’s like karting where it’s a few tenths in between because that means the pressure increases, if the pressure is high you have human failure or a human hero action.
“This is the emotion that we want to be under as drivers and it’s what the fans want to see. They want to see the hero and zero and that only comes in very critical moments when the pressure is really high.”
A big effort is being made to try and address the imbalance including a $145m budget cap from next year, new cars from 2022 and now a rule which will see a sliding scale of aerodynamic testing time in the windtunnel and on other sims to try and limit the development of successful teams while allowing the slowest to catch up.
“A condensed field in lap time would be fantastic,” Wurz continued.
“We are not the commercial rights holders but we believe that a budget cap or resource restrictions in whatever shape or form, F1 will be more sustainable for the future, recreate revenue for the teams and then you will find someone to invest in a team as a partner or a sponsor or private investor.
“The direction that it’s going seems to be okay. Of course, you can’t change such a long time business model [quickly], we’re still living in the afterworld of the Bernie Ecclestone era.
“We are now connected to Liberty [Media] and we have to make the sport fit for fast-changing consumer behaviour. There’s a lot of changes F1 has to go under, and we believe it has to happen steadily, carefully and really well thought through.”
