MONACO: Mark Webber has joined the expanding debate over the current state of Formula One and called for a major re-think over the future of the sport.
The 36-year-old Australian Red Bull driver said F1 needs to reconsider the desire to be an entertainment and think more about reverting back to being a more genuine formula for motor racing.
Alongside his Red Bull team-mate, defending triple world champion German Sebastian Vettel, and their team owner, Webber has been one of the most outspoken critics of the level of impact that Pirelli’s fast-wearing tyres currently have on the sport.
He said: “You ask any F1 driver, yes it’s frustrating to sit behind a car for a full grand prix distance.
“I’ve been there, a lot of guys have been there and that’s not much fun. But also my race in Shanghai 2011 -- I’m arriving on guys like Fernando (Alonso) and Lewis (Hamilton), I’m creaming through them at about 2.5s per lap because I’d saved tyres from qualifying. That’s not right either.
“Lewis Hamilton getting lapped (at the Spanish Grand Prix), having been with Alonso until lap five or six, that’s not right for me. So it’s gone a long way out the other way.
“Barcelona is a tough circuit, but it’s a racing track, these are Formula One cars. The writing was on the wall in winter testing. We have to drop down a little bit to more of the racing side of things.
“Fernando passing Kimi for the lead of the Spanish Grand Prix wasn’t much of an event... Sebastian and Fernando racing each other in Shanghai wasn’t either.
“We have to find a better balance for the fans and the drivers, because at the moment I think we’re too far the other way.”
Meanwhile, the Formula One circus descends on Monaco this week with tensions running high over tyres and Bernie Ecclestone telling drivers to stop complaining and use their brains to win races.
After a week of squabbling between the teams and tyre supplier Pirelli over the performance of the Italian company’s high-degradation tyres, Formula One’s veteran commercial rights holder waded in to the debate.
He said: “The easiest thing for Pirelli would be to produce tyres that you put on at the first race of the season and take off at the last. That would be easy, easy.
“I asked Pirelli to make tyres that would not complete 50 per cent of a race -- and that’s what they did.
“In the times when Niki Lauda was racing his biggest concern was looking after the gearbox and the brakes -- not the tyres.
“Then we got away from that and the drivers didn’t have to think about anything. Now they have to use their brains and start thinking about how to win races again.”
Champions Red Bull and struggling McLaren have both called for Pirelli to revise their fast-wearing rubber compounds while Ferrari and Lotus have expressed their satisfaction with leaving things as they are.
Pirelli said they will introduce revised tyres at Canadian Grand Prix, which will take place next month on June 9, a measure that the sport’s ruling body -- the International Motoring Federation (FIA) -- has stressed can only be undertaken for safety reasons. AGENCIES
