Hamilton doubts FIA meeting impact as drivers ‘have no power’ over F1 rules

Lewis Hamilton has cast doubt on the impact of next month’s key FIA meeting, insisting drivers remain powerless in shaping Formula 1’s new regulations.

The FIA and Formula 1 will meet in April to evaluate the new regulations, with an eye on how they are impacting the racing both in qualifying and the grands prix.

Lewis Hamilton says drivers have no power over F1 rules

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Both have been a bone of contention for the drivers, who are not happy about lifting-and-coasting during qualifying to harvest battery power, but their complaints about the actual racing are numerous.

From poor starts to fake overtakes, both dependent on battery levels at the times, this year’s racing has been called artificial and fake.

Also dangerous.

While the sport has yet to be seen a huge start-line crash, it did see one resulting from massive speed deltas in Suzuka when Oliver Bearman closed in on Franco Colapinto at more than 50 kph. The Haas driver had enough time to take avoiding action but hit the grass on his left, shot across the bow of Colapinto’s car and slammed into the barrier on the outside of the Spoon Curve with an impact of 50G.

Bearman was fortunate to walk away with nothing more than a badly bruised knee.

Hours after his crash, the FIA confirmed that it would meet with Formula 1 and the teams to discuss the new egulations.

“By design,” read the statement issued to PlanetF1.com, “these regulations include a number of adjustable parameters, particularly in relation to energy management, which allow for optimisation based on real-world data.

“It has been the consistent position of all stakeholders that a structured review would take place after the opening phase of the season, to allow for sufficient data to be gathered and analysed.”

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Going on to state that “any potential adjustments, particularly those related to energy management, require careful simulation and detailed analysis”, the Formula 1 drivers don’t expect much to change.

“I’m not expecting much from it,” Hamilton said, “but I know I hope they make some big changes.

“Obviously, only on some performance, we’re hugely down to the Mercedes engine, and what that is, we don’t know whether it’s just that they have a bigger turbo or just more crank power or something else. We’ll find out.

“We have to try to figure it out, work harder.”

Quizzed on whether he is expecting much because it is not an easy issue to resolve or because of F1 politics, the Briton replied: “There’ll be a lot of chefs in the kitchen. It doesn’t usually end up with a good result.”

He doubled down on that a day later, saying: “The drivers don’t have a say. They don’t any power.

“No power, we are not on the committee; we have no voting rights.”

Hamilton though, it not the only driver concerned that the 9 April meeting with not benefit those on track.

Williams driver Carlos Sainz said: “That’s the problem when you listen only to the teams, that they will think the racing is OK because maybe they’re having fun watching it on the TV,” he said.

“But from a driver standpoint, when you are racing each other, and you realise that there can be 50km/h speed delta, that’s actually not racing.

“There’s no category in the world where you have this kind of closing speeds because that’s when big accidents can happen because it catches you by surprise, you defend late, it catches you or the car [behind].

“Anyway, I really hope they listen to us, and they focus on the feedback we’ve given them, rather than only listening to the teams.

“[I hope] they come up with a plan for Miami that improves the situation, and a plan also for the medium-term future of these regulations to keep improving it.

“Even if you cannot improve everything for Miami, do another good step in Miami and then a big step for, I don’t know if it’s next year or later in the season.”

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