Pit Stop | F1 needs thrill of racing back in double quick time
The FIA should step in and help the sport return to its former glory days as current rules on fuel and tyres are making it less of a spectacle
Love him or loathe him, Nigel Mansell is an F1 world champion and when he speaks perhaps we should sit up and take notice. He's the latest to wade into the debate about the future - and the soul - of the sport.
The Briton says that the sport needs "a bit of magic", and there are few at the moment who would disagree. The problem is that there is a lot of disagreement over how that magic can be provided. Mansell himself has plenty of ideas. Ditch the drag reduction system for a start. He claimed that "drivers can drive with a couple of fingers", and has urged to sport to "let the drivers drive and race like we did".
By that he means more tyre grip so they can throw the cars into corners, perhaps drift them back out and not worry about tyre wear. Power steering he feels also means less worry, and less consequences, over clipping kerbs and corners.
He told Sky Sports: "We used to go flying into corners knowing if we got it wrong we would have a massive accident, so we respected the car and the corners."
This gung-ho approach certainly thrilled the fans, and if you are of a certain vintage you will remember Mansell's "Red 7" thrilling us countless times with charges to the front of a race. Who can forget his tyre blowout in Adelaide in 1986 that cost him the world title that year.
Compare that to the last race in Montreal, where pit crews were instructing drivers to "lift and coast" to save fuel. The current rules restrict fuel consumption to 100kg of fuel during races and a maximum fuel-flow rate of 100kg per hour. It's obviously not enough, and lifting off the power early into a corner is an anathema to both fans and drivers.
