Austin (United States) (AFP)
If Lewis Hamilton now aims to match Michael Schumacher's record with a seventh world title, the F1 looks at it around 2021 and the introduction of new rules supposed to spice up the championship by redistributing the cards.
Crowned Sunday a sixth time at the end of the United States Grand Prix in Austin (Texas), the British driver may, at age 34, hope to break all records before hanging up, a retirement he plans to elsewhere not yet.
But he may have to seize his chance next year, because by 2021 it is F1 "new look" that will face each other and nothing says that his team Mercedes can maintain its supremacy.
"It's going to be an interesting time, I intend to be there and at some point next year I'll start thinking about 2021 and pioneering this era," he said. in Austin.
- "dirty air" -
F1's American promoter Liberty Media and the International Automobile Federation (FIA) have just introduced a new technical regulation that will allow cars to overtake more easily by reducing their "drag" aerodynamic (also called "air"). dirty ") which disrupts the handling of the one who follows another closely.
These new rules also introduce a cost cap of $ 175 million per season, although there are many exemptions, such as, for example, pilot salaries.
This should in principle reduce the financial advantage of the three richest stables (Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull) and allow the other seven to compete in arms a little more equal.
The larger ones will therefore have to reduce their staff.
"We have a lot of expanding activities in the team and outside of F1 that are of great interest to us and we have other motorsport activities and we will try to find the best solution to protect our staff, our intellectual property. and our know-how and we look at all this carefully before deciding what we will do, "said Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff in Austin.
The German manufacturer has committed for the upcoming season in the championship Formula Electric, a discipline "greener" than F1 and the popularity is growing.
For Lewis Hamilton, there seems little doubt that the star brand will manage to preserve its advantage in F1 and can offer him in 2021 the best car if he decides to continue driving for her, his current contract is ending at the end of 2020.
- Starting point -
Even if the FOM and the FIA present their new regulations as to take or leave, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes intend to weigh all their weight in a direction that would be favorable to them.
"I will not say everything is locked," said Scuderia Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto. "This is a starting point from which we must collaborate and further improve what is a good set of regulations," he said in Austin.
Because Ferrari has a nuclear weapon with its right of veto which it enjoys because it is the only team to have participated in the world championship of F1 since its creation in 1950.
In this respect, the F1 players still have to agree on the delicate subject of its governance and on the even more sensitive one of the distribution of its revenues, set by the previous "Concorde agreement".
Remains the larger question of the consistency of F1 with a world concerned about environmental protection and global warming, topics dear to Lewis Hamilton.
Some manufacturers currently involved in F1, such as Renault and Honda, officially conduct a review of their activities in this sport. Other actors, like Red Bull, are there only to obtain a maximum advertising return.
Their eventual departure would be an earthquake for F1 that needs them to maintain the starting grid of the Grand Prix, currently 20 cars, and motorize them with expensive hybrid units trendy.
© 2019 AFP