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Abiteboul: F1 should move away from heavy cars

Abiteboul: F1 should move away from heavy cars

06-06-2019 13:43
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Jake Williams-Smith

Renault team principal Cyril Abiteboul believes that Formula 1 needs to move away from the heavy cars currently seen in the sport.

Over the past decade and a half, cars have continued to increase in both size and weight producing, in Abiteboul's opinion, "bulky" race cars.

Formula 1 is in the middle of negotiations over the 2021 regulations with Liberty Media hoping to introduce changes that will limit costs and make racing more exciting. Amongst those changes will be design changes and the Renault team boss is hopeful of lighter, smaller cars.

"I'm sensitive to anything involving weight," Abiteboul explained to Auto-Hebdo.

"Increasing weight and mass is wrong, and that goes for Formula 1 as well. This is something I regularly fight for: the reduction of weight, for a better driving experience but also for the show.

"Today's cars aren't spectacular enough because they're too heavy. But we don't all agree on this. Toto [Wolff] typically has a different opinion. Personally, I think the cars should be more powerful and lighter.

"In the third sector in Barcelona, at the chicane, you can see that the modern F1 car is just sitting there, looking bulky. In that sector, the driver isn't struggling and that's a problem because it gives the impression that anybody could do it. And that isn't true.

"F1 should restore that feeling [of difficulty], even visually, for the spectators and the TV viewers. People should feel that it's something exceptional that few could achieve."

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