Lewis Hamilton says the new Formula 1 this year is “much more fun” than any other time in his career.
The Ferrari driver said his multi-lap battle with team-mate Charles Leclerc at the previous race in China was “the best battle I’ve had” since his famous duel with former Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg in Bahrain in 2014.
The seven-time champion said: “That’s how racing should be. It should be back and forth, back and forth. It shouldn’t be, like, one move is done and then that’s it.”
Hamilton’s comments come as F1 is locked in a debate about the impact of the new car and engine regulations that were introduced this season.
The new engines have a 50-50 split between internal combustion and electrical power and are energy starved as a fundamental basis of the rules.
That means teams and drivers are constantly managing energy levels through a lap.
It has led in the first two grands prix of the year to what has become known as “yo-yo racing”, where two or more cars are locked together for several laps as they pass and re-pass because of different energy levels at different parts of the lap.
But it has also created a change to driving in qualifying, where the need to recover electrical energy means the cars are under-powered for parts of the lap and the driving challenge has therefore been reduced.
Hamilton added that he, too, saw the paradox inherent in the new rules.
On racing, he said: “If you go back to karting, it’s the same thing. People going back and forth, back and forth, you can never break away.
“No one ever has ever referred to go-karting as yo-yo racing. It’s the best form of racing, and Formula 1 has not been the best form of racing in a long, long time.
“Out of all the cars that I’ve driven in 20 years, this is the only car that you can actually follow through high speed and not completely lose everything that you have [in terms of grip], and you can stay behind.”
But asked why he loved the racing and Max Verstappen did not, Hamilton added: “I don’t know if you can use the word love, I’m just saying that I’m enjoying racing. Naturally when you have a good car and you’re competitive, it’s nice to be at the front.
“Some drivers, I think a lot of drivers, are not enjoying it, but I’m just personally enjoying it. It’s a lighter car, they’re more nimble, they are more fun to drive.
“Do I love the power deployment? Absolutely not, I actually really dislike that. Do I love the straight-line mode? Not particularly.
“But as a whole I think it’s exciting for the sport, in a time where the sport is the highest.”
The teams agreed at a meeting with governing body the FIA and F1 last week that the issue of driving on the limit in qualifying would be assessed in an attempt to find improvements before the next race in Miami in five weeks’ time.
In that context, the FIA has issued a change to the rules for this weekend’s race in Japan that reduces the total amount of energy that cars can recover in one lap from nine megajoules to eight.
The reasoning is that this will mean the drivers and cars have to do less recovery during a qualifying lap.
Verstappen said: “Going to 8MJs probably helps a tiny bit, but the basics are the same, you know, so you still need to be careful with your throttle inputs.
“This is the reality that we’re in now and you just have to accept that at the moment. I mean, there’s not much that you can do anyway for this year. I hope that bigger changes will be there for next year.”
There has been concern that the rules could reduce the challenge of Japan’s Suzuka circuit, which is regarded as arguably the most challenging on the calendar.
World champion Lando Norris said: “It’s never ruined. I don’t think you can ever ruin this track. Will it be as spectacular? I don’t think so. It will not be. But it’s still an incredible track to drive.
“There’ll certainly be some places where it just won’t be as spectacular. You’ll start clipping [recovery energy[ into Spoon [Curve]. That’s one of the quickest corners, where you turn in you are going incredibly quick. Like last year, I didn’t even brake into Spoon entry.”