How to get F1 exciting again: 'Send Adrian Newey into retirement'
Max Verstappen has managed to match a feat by Nigel Mansell. Just as the Briton managed earlier, the now three-time champion managed to claim the world title with five Grands Prix to go. Mansell is full of praise for Verstappen, but at the same time hopes the Dutchman will face more competition. "That's what I hope for Formula One fans," he said in conversation with AceOdds.
Mansell does realise that Red Bull is currently well ahead of the other teams, although the gap with Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren seems to be closing. But to get teams truly equal, the one-time F1 champion says a rigorous measure is needed: "Well for a level playing field, what you need to do is retire Adrian Newey. He is a genius. Adrian Newey is a genius. It is fantastic," Mansell praised the master designer of the RB19, among others.
Mansell praises team spirit Red Bull Racing
"And, you know, to have him tied up with Red Bull for, you know, his whole career now and everything else is a genius move as well," he said. "And I mean, I have to say dynamic team, brilliant team, professional team, and everyone's gotta do the same thing. It's just like when Jean Todt was with Ferrari, with Michael Schumacher and the team and expertise they had there, it happens. And just like Mercedes did with Lewis Hamilton for a period of time with all sorts of people working there, they kept the same team together and they were unbeatable."
A lot of other teams did have regular personnel changes, for example, Ferrari and McLaren. Especially in Formula 1, continuity is hugely important. "And what's gotta happen now is that Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and everybody else has got to hopefully dig deep to catch up and it can be wide open for 2024.," Mansell said.
If a driver knocks out another driver or damage the other car then they should be taken out of the race and not be given 5 seconds penalty as Alex has said 5 seconds penalty doesn't work because he can still drive at full speed to gain the 5 seconds or more
If you put Newey and Colin Chapman together you would not need max any driver would win every race
James Allison is the name I assume Nigel cant say out loud...wonder why though....if you talk about Adrian at RB...James is the counter weight at MB.
F1 is as exciting as it has ever been. Its not only because we are witnessing the greatest driver since Senna put on a masterclass 95% of the time, it is also wheel to wheel duals between some very skilled up and comers that offer wonderful excitement to fans.
Newey knows what he knows due to the people he worked with,the experiences gained over the years. Likewise there will be understudies that won't unlearn what they learned from him. Collin Chapman,Byrne,Newey,Barnard and Murray...F1 has been truly blessed with some of the best. These guys to me,are the real heroes of F1,drivers to me are just tools to drive around in the fastest and best cars ever designed. Not a fan of the current regulations,but still amazed by the designs they come up with. I really liked the different designs that appeared at the start of last season.Yes,the Merc was flawed,but it was just so different and I admire that type of boldness. Sometimes we get something ugly like the Walrus nose,or truly crazy like the Fan Car or the 6 wheeled car....but,it is always fascinating,even when they had the very ugly noses. How these designers go about to claw back every tenth is just brilliant. I wish the FIA was less restrictive.Look at WEC,something similar could work in F1. Give the teams a maximum number of downforce points they can achieve,this could be easily measured at each axle as downward force and then give the teams maximum dimensions,the smaller the better and let them come up with their own design as long as it meets those size limits. In other words,you can create the downforce by the floor,bodywork,or wings,but you get to decide what you want to prioritize....Do you want 80% from the floor or vise versa. The Lotus 72 is probably my favorite F1 car of all time (looks wise),but to be fair during that period,designs were almost changing on a weekly basis and the technology was moving in leaps and bounds. Whilst cars still followed trends,it wasn't converging as much as they do today and that's the real pity about the current shape of F1.Next years cars will all basically be RB clones to some extent or the other. Come on F1 reduce the size from 6.6m x 2m to 5 m x 1.75 m. 798kg to 650kg. Raise the drivers height,to ensure better visibility Bring back refuelling,race tires that can do short stints at the limit and free up the technical regs so we can have some variety. Whilst I know we can not go back to the old cars with exposed engines and chassis members,if you truly want to fall in love with these cars,go to somewhere where you can see the best of the 60's and 70's....it's like the difference between a well dressed lady and the same lady wearing a lot less.
What I'd like to see is if AN moves on, that he moves on to the FIA (or a consultant for them) to help come up with aero rules that really do enable the cars to follow better. He's spent decades optimizing for the regs, who better to then to come up with a better set of regs?
