Hamilton finds new F1 cars ‘more fun’ to drive

Lewis Hamilton says he finds this year’s Formula 1 cars “more fun” to drive – in contrast to Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso’s assessment of the impact of the new rules.

F1 has made the biggest rule change in its history and introduced new regulations for chassis, engines, tyres and fuel.

Verstappen has criticised the amount of energy management required from the new hybrid engines, but Hamilton said he was enjoying the reduced grip of the cars and different aerodynamic philosophy.

“We just have a less downforce,” the Ferrari driver said. “But you still have to discover the grip. There’s still so many elements completely under our control.

“So, it’s just different, and new, and I still find it quite fun.

But Alonso said that a driver’s skill was not as important as before, because optimum energy management meant some corners were taken slower than they could be because doing so gained more lap time from having extra energy to deploy on straights than was lost through the bends.

Alonso said: “You’re always on the limit on the grip. It depends on the corners. You’re always on the limit on the grip in a rental car if you push to the limit.

“But the high-speed corners, especially, I think it’s less challenging. You have to say that. There’s nothing wrong to say [that].

“In Turn 12 in Bahrain, and some of the corners maybe in Barcelona, you decide to save energy and go through the corner at a slower speed so you have more energy for the straight.

“From a driver’s point of view the skills matter less because you can go as fast as the energy choice you make before that corner, so it’s a different Formula 1.”

Following Verstappen’s criticism of the new engines last week, in which he said the new cars were like “Formula E on steroids” and “just not Formula 1”, he said: “You’re fighting the grip. You’re on the limit of what you have, for sure. It’s just not as much now.

“Of course, I also know that this probably is one of the worst [circuits], in terms of the grip feeling that you get from a car, because of the tarmac being so aggressive.

“A lot less downforce but at the same time, you also don’t get a lot of combined grip [in the braking and turning phase] at the moment. It’s a bit hard to manage.”