'Best racing ever' or 'a joke'? The row over the new F1
The three most successful drivers in Formula 1 summed up the conflict and paradox at the heart of the sport's new look after a Chinese Grand Prix that showed off its best and worst sides. Lewis Hamilton, fresh from his long-awaited first podium finish for Ferrari, called his battle with team-mate Charles Leclerc "awesome" and "the best racing I've ever experienced in F1". Max Verstappen, who retired with a problem in his Red Bull's energy recovery system after a dispiriting race in the lower half of the field, said the new F1 was "terrible".
"If someone likes this," he said, "then you really don't know what racing is like. Not fun at all. Playing Mario Kart.
This is not racing. Boosting past, then you run out of battery, the next straight they boost past you again. For me, it's just a joke.
" Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, often finds phrases of elegant simplicity that nail the heart of an issue. Living a nightmare of deja vu from a decade ago with a Honda engine short of power and hybrid capability, Alonso described the new season as "the battery world championship". Their opinions, doubtless influenced by their own competitive positions, reflect layers of the same, complex issue.
The new hybrid engines - with their 50-50 split between internal combustion and electrical power, and energy recovery limited by regulatory choices - have led to a new style of racing wheel to wheel, and changed the fundamental nature of what drivers do. Hamilton's battle with Leclerc - and theirs in the opening laps with the Mercedes drivers of maiden race-winner Kimi Antonelli and George Russell - was a function of what many would consider the positive effects of the new engines on racing. Certainly, the most superficially attractive.