Gentlemen, a short view back to the past. Thirty years ago, Niki Lauda told us ‘take a monkey, place him into the cockpit and he is able to drive the car.’ Thirty years later, Sebastian told us ‘I had to start my car like a computer, it’s very complicated.’ And Nico Rosberg said that during the race – I don’t remember what race - he pressed the wrong button on the wheel. Question for you both: is Formula One driving today too complicated with twenty and more buttons on the wheel, are you too much under effort, under pressure? What are your wishes for the future concerning the technical programme during the race? Less buttons, more? Or less and more communication with your engineers?

But yes, they completely made the powertrains to opaque for the viewer, and they definitely missed the ball on the sound aspect.

I get that they need to look environmentally conscious but let's be honest: it's maybe one decade - two tops - until F1 is electric. Until then, why not just skip the hybrid bits and do loud and simple engines?

I was at a GP in september, something you do very much for the noise and spectacle - the race you follow best from your couch. And it was astonishing just how much better F3 and F2 sounds, compared to F1. And that surely can't be good for FIA.

Maybe 30+ years ago. Carbon fiber parts, motors made of Beryllium alloys, the hybrid tech was interesting for a short while etc.

But then, either you want fun for the fans of the fossil engines OR you want advancement in technology. I don't think it can be combined anymore. My feeling is it will go the way of horse races, completely irrelevant to the broader transport technology, and won't go electric at all.

>I was at a GP in september, something you do very much for the noise

Why spend all that money when you can goto the local farmyard and watch them shuffle tractors around, if you close your eyes they're indistinguishable

Sometimes changes really are bad and are reverted, but more often the changes eventually get accepted and years later everyone involved treats it as an integral part of the sport.

Even "serious fans" almost always seem to be biased by the state of the sport when they started watching. Every change since that point is horrible and misguided, but they rarely argue for reverting changes that happened before then.

They might as well not do it at all.

You cannot greenwash auto racing as "sustainable" when by its very nature it need not exist. It's done for sport.

It's like people who hunt exotic animals agreeing to put suppressors on their rifles as if that somehow makes it more acceptable.

In practice, of course, it's all going to go a bit south when road cars go to 90% EV. There is already a "formula E", of course.

Someone on reddit showed a graph comparing both, and it's just ridiculous.

I'm an avid F1 fan since 1990s, and think hybrid engines is the wrong way to do it.

That said, its still dumb since consumer cars are moving on from hybrids it seems.

It also depends on what your point of comparison is. Current vehicles are able to go faster with a V6 than the old V10s could, and that compactness is saving weight and adding performance elsewhere, so it's not as straightforward as modern F1 cars being too heavy. Modern cars also have a much bigger focus on safety than the old cars did, which, again, adds mass.

It looks like it will be mild-hybrid V8s with turbos from 2030: https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/first-details-of-2030-f1-...