The debate about this year’s rules has widened out into what might be the ideal rule-set for the future.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, the son of team owner Lawrence Stroll, said the new rules were “fundamentally just so flawed”, adding: “We’re still far away from proper F1 cars, and pushing flat-out without thinking about batteries.”
Two years ago, FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem was pushing for a return to V8 or V10 naturally aspirated engines, and he is known to still be keen on the idea.
However, at the time, the engine manufacturers killed his plan.
And Russell explained that the decision was more complicated than it appears on the surface.
The Mercedes driver said: “There’s a lot of talk about going back to a V8. That would obviously be pretty cool, the sustainable fuel topic is a fantastic one, and I think would be great for Formula 1. We need to find ways to reduce the cars even more, because [reducing] the weight of the cars has been a positive impact in terms of the racing and the drivability, being able to fight close with one another.
“If you look at the ‘glory days’ of Formula 1 20 years ago where everyone says they were the best cars ever – and I still agree they were probably the coolest cars we ever saw in Formula 1 in the early 2000s – there was no overtaking at all. So it’s something we need to remember and we need to think about for the next time.”