Lewis Hamilton’s idea for a new F1 rule may be the Mercedes star’s “only hope” of catching Max Verstappen, according to Naomi Schiff. The seven-time champion has demanded FIA chiefs prevent teams from working on next season’s cars until a certain date in order to avoid dominant teams remaining at the front.
He suggested all teams should be banned from building cars for the 2024 campaign until at least August 1st. Schiff understands why Hamilton and Mercedes may want a rule update but has highlighted some key concerns.
She told Sky Sports F1: “I understand why he’s saying that and for them it might be their only hope to catch up to Red Bull because they are a step ahead of everybody else on the grid. I think Red Bull would obviously say that is not necessary and I think everybody on the grid would agree that would be very hard to police.
“At the end of the day, F1 is in a period right now where they do want the racing to remain interesting, they’ve brought in this set of regulations to make things tighter, they’ve brought in the cost cap to make things tighter on the grid and it’s really not really worked out that way – we have one team winning every race this season and that’s not fun for anybody.
“Maybe that’s not the solution but perhaps there are other solutions.” Hamilton made the suggestion after claiming Red Bull’s dominance means the Constructors’ Championship leaders will have already started working on next year’s car.
In Canada, Christian Horner confirmed some resources were already being chucked into next season’s RB20 to offset the loss of wind tunnel time due to their cost cap penalty. Hamilton revealed Mercedes have never started work on their cars this early in a season as he called on the governing body to make changes.
He explained: “I think the FIA should probably put a time when everyone is allowed to start developing for next year’s car.
“So August 1, that’s when everybody can start, so that no one can get an advantage from the next year. Because that sucks. Say for example you start the season and you know you have a bad car, you could just say actually I’m not going to bother with developing this car, I’ll put all this money into next year’s car and have an advantage.”
But, Verstappen was not thrilled with Hamilton’s remarks as he called out his former title rival. The Dutchman commented: “We weren’t talking about that when he was winning his championships, right? So I don’t think we should now.
“So August 1, that’s when everybody can start, so that no one can get an advantage from the next year. Because that sucks.
“Say for example you start the season and you know you have a bad car, you could just say actually I’m not going to bother with developing this car, I’ll put all this money into next year’s car and have an advantage.”
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