Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton has voiced his opposition to the reduction in engine components permitted before penalties in 2018, claiming races should be about more “sprinting”.
This season, the drivers have been limited to just four whole power units for the 20-race season with only a handful of drivers still within the boundaries with just one race left to go. From next year, however, that number will drop to three and some elements only two for what will be a 21-race calendar.
For the Mercedes driver, such limits go against what F1 racing should be about, particularly after enjoying a rare sprint race in Brazil this past weekend when the 32-year-old started from the pit-lane to finish fourth.
“Next year we’re going to have three engines but I don’t like the idea of going to three, that sucks,” he declared. “Sprinting is what we are missing in F1, we should be able to push more. This is the first time I’ve pushed an engine like that. It was nice, normally you’re managing it.”
With the German manufacturer having comfortably the best reliability of the four suppliers this year, Hamilton does admit the new limits are possible to adhere to but would require much greater management.
“I always look after it (the engine) more than I need to,” he said. “I often turn the engine down and they keep telling me to turn it up and I’m like ‘No, no, I prefer it down and I’ll figure out a way to catch up in another way’, but I guess that’s just your fear of pushing it a little bit too much, like the engine blowing up in Malaysia last year, so those kind of things make me look after it even more.
“I just have to implement the same thing I have done this year then I should generally be able to make those three engines last. I think the team has done great and to be able to push the engine like it was today, it makes me think I don’t like the idea of going to three engines.”
The British driver also thinks the restrictions will have a detrimental impact on the spectacle for fans, who are already frustrated by the penalties caused by the limits, as teams will keep running to a minimum and drivers nurse their machinery.
“It was fun because I had that but I was coming from a different place,” Hamilton said of his race in Brazil. “But if you look at the front guys they were managing and that is generally what we are doing at the front, so I don’t think that’s too exciting for people to watch.
“That’s why people look at the most exciting races, particularly when it rains because you don’t have those limitations. Races, where Max [Verstappen] has been coming through from the back or a driver has been, those have been the most exciting ones.
“So how do we provide that for the future? I’m not sure cutting down the engines is helping it in that direction.”
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Another criticism Hamilton has is of the ever-increasing weight of today’s F1 cars which will go up again in 2018 due to the introduction of the Halo cockpit protection.
“The fact that these days we’ve got 100kg, the car is going to be a bus next year, it’s going to be so heavy it’s going to be like a bleeding NASCAR,” he claimed.
“The braking distances get longer, the brakes are always on the limit and I know it sounds negative but as a racer who wants a fast, nimble car that I can attack every single lap, unfortunately, that’s not what we generally have.”
