Amid dissent among the sport’s top three manufacturers – Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault – regarding the direction the sport will take beyond 2020, Formula 1 commercial chief Sean Bratches is adamant that the DNA will not be tampered with.
Bratches told Racer, “I think if you look at the most successful sports in the world, there is a more equitable distribution of capital that creates a competitive playing field which engages fans and inserts a degree of unpredictability.”
“Today in Formula 1 there is very little degree of unpredictability – it’s almost certain who is going to be on the podium and who is going to be winning.
“I think while those that are investing massively in their teams are enjoying the fruits of that, it would be short-lived from a sporting standpoint and everyone would be served better if it was a more competitive grid.
“We don’t want to homogenize this sport. We want to create a degree off boundaries in which the teams can play and innovate, and those that are more proficient in exploiting the formula will do better.
“But we’re not trying to get this to a circumstance where everybody has to have the same engine or the same livery. That’s not where we’re going, but we just want to bring the back of the grid up to the front of the grid a little closer,” added Bratches.
Big Question: What needs to change in F1 and what needs to be retained?