Why is F1 so boring? Tame tracks, lame cars... world champion Lewis Hamilton is right to hit out at dull racing

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Lewis Hamilton led the cries of boring, boring Formula One after his lights-to-flag victory at the French Grand Prix last weekend. Ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend, JONATHAN McEVOY explores the issues facing the sport and how they might be resolved...

Hamilton's dominance

I specifically cite Lewis rather than Mercedes here. Yes, Mercedes are the super team of their time, just as Ferrari, Red Bull, Williams, McLaren and Lotus have been in other periods, but the real star is the 34-year-old Briton.

Britain's Lewis Hamilton is arguably the greatest performer motor racing has known

Consider, for example, where his team-mate Valtteri Bottas finished in last year's championship — fifth, behind the two Ferrari men and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen. Hamilton, by comparison, wrapped up the title with two races remaining.

And in France last Sunday, Hamilton mined a golden 18-second advantage over Bottas on a car park of a track that offered little opportunity for exploitation.

Mercedes are culpable for the lack of internal competition. Poor Valtteri, a very decent driver but showing no signs of improvement, will never provide it. They should go for a new No 2. The dream incomer would be Verstappen, the prince who will prosper when Hamilton retires.

Mercedes are the super team of their time but Lewis Hamilton is the real star

What about Mercedes' junior driver George Russell, who is impressing at Williams?

But we should remind ourselves that we are privileged to be watching arguably the greatest performer motor racing has known. He is the sport's Don Bradman.

Ferrari failure

The Scuderia are the great enigma of Formula One. Vastly resourced, historically significant, they continue to defy expectations.

They set the pace in pre-season and then, like a vanishing trick, it is gone. Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc have made too many mistakes between them. Vettel, low on confidence as Hamilton marauds, is not worthy of the outright No 1 status the team are contorting themselves to give him.

Ferrari are the great enigma of Formula One as they continue to defy expectations

Their strategy lacks cohesion and they wasted time pursuing a forlorn review of the punishment Vettel was handed in Canada when he veered on to the grass — a mistake again from a man who was a metronome during his Red Bull success. Mattia Binotto, the bespectacled new team principal, appears to be more boffin than leader. And he has Italy looking on as he rebuilds. Meanwhile, Mercedes march on.

No danger

'They will deny it for ever,' said James Hunt, defining motor racing's appeal, 'but people watch a race to see if any of us get killed.' Whether that was true or not in the Seventies, safety advances have neutered danger now and there is no turning back.

But tracks should not be over-indulgent — there are too many run-off areas that fail to punish mistakes. More gravel traps, please. Circuit Paul Ricard, home of last weekend's grand prix, is the most anaemic imaginable, hardly a suitable heir to French venues such as Rouen, Reims and Clermont-Ferrand.

F1 should be the ultimate test of a driver's ability, not an engineering championship

It would be nice to see the drivers as they race, as we could with the likes of Sir Stirling Moss — a helmet that left his face visible, sitting back and steering with that straight-arm style he adopted because he thought it pleasing to the eye.

Now they are sunken in the cockpit.

That, alas, is the price of safety.

Car problems

We must defer to drivers, past and present on this one. Hamilton says the cars are too heavy and not physically demanding enough. How on earth can this be so? F1 must be the ultimate test of a driver's ability, not an engineering championship.

As Sky's Martin Brundle said: 'The cars should be the angriest, flightiest, most challenging machines on the planet.' So strip them of the aero that glues them to the track and prevents overtaking, even if the trade-off is slightly diminished speed.

Formula One attracts a TV audience of 100 million each race built up over 70 years

Minimise driver aids. Outlaw radios and leave drivers to their own devices.

The evolution of engineering is the problem — reliability has replaced unpredictability.

The engines are too quiet, missing the ear-splitting roar of old. Turn up the volume.

Drivers have to nurse their tyres, brakes and engines, of which they are allowed just three a year, through a grand prix. It is the very antithesis of racing.

Teams' self-interest

Ludicrously, the deadline for the new regulations that come in for 2021 — the chance to turn a page — has been delayed until October because the teams cannot agree on the way forward.

They should have no involvement in drawing up the rules. They fight for what suits them, not the interests of the sport. The team principals — famously called the Piranha Club — should be offered a take-it-or-leave-it set of regulations. Dictatorship rather than democracy works in F1.

... But don't despair

For all its self-flagellation, Formula One attracts a TV audience of 100 million each race built up over 70 years. It also has an uncanny knack of revitalising itself with a cracking race or eye-catching crash.

And as Ernest Hemingway said before he blew his brains out: 'There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing and mountaineering. All the rest are merely games.'