Renowned Red Bull designer Adrian Newey believes modern Formula 1 lacks the “gladiatorial feeling” of previous generations, with the cars appearing to be easy to drive.
This year saw the sport reverse 20 years of slowing down the machines with the introduction of new designs aimed at lowering lap times by around five seconds compared to 2015 and it worked with new lap records at every circuit except Monza.
But Newey, who been involved in F1 for over three decades, admits today’s drivers are not as highly regarded as those who raced early in his career.
“You don’t have that gladiatorial feeling that you used to have,” Red Bull’s Chief Technical Officer said. “If you go back to, for instance Ayrton Senna, on board footage of him at Monaco in 1990, you think ‘how on earth can he drive a car like that?’ You think you could never do that in a million years.
“Now if you watch the onboard footage you kind of feel – and you’d be wrong of course – that you would be able to do it yourself.”
Another criticism many have is that F1 is now too much about the engineers and the car than it is the driver, with the current hybrid engines particularly changing the landscape since 2014.
“For independent teams such as ourselves who can’t necessarily get hold of the best power unit then it is a struggle,” Newey claimed. “That is in contrast with the V8 era when the engines were much more similar to each other.
“If, for instance, the power unit difference was much less. then I think this year we would have had a proper four-way championship battle between ourselves, Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren, which is what we want really.”
