Alfa Romeo boss Fred Vasseur says midfield teams would get a “huge” boost if Formula 1’s current two-tier grid was closed.
It is hoped that new financial and technical regulations can end the dominance of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull in 2021, with those three teams filling the podium at all-but three races since the start of 2017.
Last month’s crazy German GP offered a glimpse into what that kind of F1 could look like, and Vasseur does think action-filled races could become at least a little more common.
“If mechanically they reduce the gap between the midfield and the top teams you will have some events, perhaps not 50%, but some events in the season where something like [the German GP] can happen,” he was quoted by PlanetF1.
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“The feeling would be huge for the teams, spectators, drivers, to have this possibility [of fighting for higher positions on merit] in mind.
“So far it is not the case. The top six could have a crash on the first lap, come back to the pits, change the nose, change the rear wing, come back and they are still able to lap us.
“You have no expectations beyond just to be P7, but I feel it is getting less the case.”
As mentioned one of the ways F1 hopes to close up the grid is through new cars which are designed to promote closer action on track by reducing the impact of turbulent air.
But that isn’t the only technical area Red Bull boss Christian Horner wants to see progress in.
“We saw great racing at Austria as well and even at Silverstone and the tyres play a crucial role in all of that, so getting the tyres right, getting the aerodynamics right is going to be important so the drivers can follow each other and race hard against each other,” he explained.
“We understand what has created the good races. Some of it is the circuit, some of it is the tyres. The cars are enormously complicated and I think we can definitely make them less complex.
“I think what we want to achieve is more races like the ones we’ve seen [before the summer break].”
