Formula One in sad state: Webber

Red Bull driver says quality of the racing circuit has dropped.

Australian driver Mark Webber, who is set to retire at the end of this season, believes that the quality of the Formula One circuit has dropped since his debut in 2002 due to the ascendency of pay drivers.

The 36-year-old believes that financial concerns are forcing teams to overlook talent, and focus more on their budget, according to F1Today.net.

A ‘sad state’ is what Webber believes the sport is in due to those factors having diluted the quality of the present racing circuit to the extent that it is actually weaker than what it was when the Aussie made his debut on his home turf, with his team Minardi.

“When I was on the grid at the back with Minardi you had [Eddie] Irvine, [Mika] Salo — all those guys had been on podiums,” said Webber. “The grid was just packed full of guys who had won in F3000, won a lot of impressive races.

“[Now] there are a lot of talented guys out there, but a lot are slipping through the net unfortunately. That’s a sad state.”

He listed Dutch Robin Frijins as being a phenomenal young driver, who was being left out due to the sport taking such measures.

Cars will be faster in 2014, says Renault chief

Formula One will move from V8 to V6 power next year and Renault chief Remi Taffin believes that change will not affect the speed of the cars.

“I don’t think we’ll lose so much,” said Taffin. “Formula One is Formula One, and we want the cars to still be the quickest. And they will be fast.

“I think that at the beginning of the season they will be slower than the current cars by a second, but after mid-season they could even be faster. It’s always been like that, (such as) when we moved from V10 to V8, and when there were big changes in the aerodynamics in 2009.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th, 2013.

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