Ricciardo: Current F1 Cars Too Wide

The Australian Grand Prix yet again saw a lack of overtaking and the drivers have vented their frustrations about being unable to fight one another.

Daniel Riccardo believes that the current F1 cars are not allowing drivers to race close enough to overtake. The Australian might be one of if not the best overtaker on the grid currently depending on who you ask. What you cannot deny however is that if there is a chance to overtake he will go for it. 

So when he is saying that overtaking is difficult with the current cars, he might be on to something. The current cars, introduced in 2017, were made wider and more aerodynamically dependent to improve lap times and speed.

A byproduct of this, however, is that cars are now so aerodynamically sensitive, following another car is extremely difficult and has reduced the amount of overtaking.

Speaking to Autosport, Ricciardo voiced his concerns about the current cars being too big to allow overtaking and extended fights throughout the field.

"I feel now with the wide tyres and wide cars, they already take up a lot of space on the track,"

"It's hard to find clean air. It's getting to a point where I think some racetracks are going to be hurt by the racing. There's not going to be much.

"I think narrower cars were great. It's like motorbikes, because they're so narrow there's always room to get past. And they lap 30 seconds slower than us.

"I think it proves it's not necessarily about the lap time. We do need the raceability, because that's the spectacle."

Although the engines might not have been as loud as some fans wanted, the Red Bull driver believes the designs of the cars in 2014 allowed for closer racing and more overtaking opportunities.

"They were slow for our standards, but for a spectator they don't know necessarily that much different," he said.

"But the racing... you could follow, you could pass. As far as overtakes went, I thought 2014 was good.

"Aerodynamically, they're very strong now. You see the sidepods of the car, there's so many bits. It looks sick, but all it means is the car behind is going to get pretty messed up.

"It's at a point now where at Barcelona, we were going fast. Turn 2, 3, was full, Turn 9 was full.

"It's impressive, but the faster we go, the harder it's going to be to overtake and the harder it's going to be to follow close.

"So do we want to see cars doing 1m22s as opposed to 1m25s, but not being able to race on Sunday? Or do you want to see slower cars but they can race?

"They still need to be fast but there's a balance."

Ricciardo also questioned the complexity of the current hybrid engines that have seen Mercedes success on an altogether different scale since their introduction.

"I don't understand a simple engine, but these ones I definitely don't," he said.

"I think a lot of money's invested in that and it's not really for much reason.

"With some of the stuff, the automotive industry can learn a little bit. But I think there's a lot [of money] wasted in how technical it all is, and it doesn't sound good.

"So probably the power unit is the place to start [cost-saving]. And then I don't know.

"Less engines? We've got that now.

"They cut testing to save money but then everybody just built multi-million dollar simulators."