A week before F1’s brave new era begins in earnest, not everyone is excited.<\/p>\n
At the Geneva motor show, former F1 driver Jean Alesi admitted he is no fan of the ‘greener’ era of energy-recovery boosted cars.<\/p>\n
“The driver is being completely overshadowed by the new technology,” said the Frenchman.<\/p>\n
“It is a challenge for the engineer but not the driver.\u00a0 We have entered an era in which only the tools count,” added Alesi, who raced more than 200 times until 2001.<\/p>\n
“Now a driver cannot trust his instinct to attack his opponent because he is just one small element of the machine.”<\/p>\n
Alesi said it is no surprise Mercedes looks set to dominate early in 2014.<\/p>\n
“That has not happened by chance,” said the French-Sicilian.\u00a0 “As (Ferrari boss) Stefano Domenicali has said, Mercedes is a giant who did an extreme preparation for this championship.”<\/p>\n
Also not overjoyed at F1’s new era is Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso, who said the changes for 2014 have been “very expensive for teams but changing little for the viewer”.<\/p>\n
But FIA president Jean Todt insists formula one had to change.<\/p>\n
“If you go to the Geneva motor show,” he told Italy’s La Stampa, “you see that cars are different now.\u00a0 There are hybrid and smaller engines, fewer cylinders.<\/p>\n
“The automotive world has changed, and F1 must be a laboratory of technologies rather than a showcase of aerodynamics,” Todt said.<\/p>\n
He is even unapologetic about F1 losing its iconic engine ‘scream’.<\/p>\n
“The sound of the turbo has its own charm,” Todt insisted, “but in addition we have powerful cars that consume much less fuel — it was an inevitable revolution.<\/p>\n
“And if Honda has decided to come back, it means the revolution is working.”<\/p>\n
At the same time, Todt said, formula one must reduce its costs.<\/p>\n
“It is absurd,” he said, “that half of the drivers in the maximum category of automobile racing are paying to drive.\u00a0 I know of no other sport in the world where that happens.”<\/p>\n
The apparent solution is a mandatory cost cap, and the details are being discussed now.\u00a0 Not supportive at all is McLaren’s returning supremo, Ron Dennis.<\/p>\n
“If you can’t afford to be in F1,” he said on Thursday, “don’t be in F1.”<\/p>\n
Dennis also accused the FIA of being hypocritical about costs, having imposed the “most expensive engine in the history of motor sport” on the teams.<\/p>\n
“The same people who took us down this path are now going down another path, saying we need to reduce costs.\u00a0 How contrary to logic is that?” he asked.<\/p>\n
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