Patrese: I like modern Formula 1

Ricardo Patrese, vice world champion in 1992, spent 256 races in Formula 1, won six, including in 1990 he won at Imola. In an interview with Speedweek, the Italian motorsport veteran shared his comments on the modern F1†

Q: What do you think of modern Formula 1?
Ricardo Patrese: I like it, I like these new cars. It is of course completely different from Formula 1 in which I played. But everything changes in this world, including Formula 1. This championship should be a great, really impressive show – no doubt it is.

Q: The longitudinal build-up of cars at high speeds is one of the hottest topics this year. Has there been anything similar in the past?
Ricardo Patrese: Yes, this phenomenon was observed at that time. Our cars also had very low ground clearance and they hit the bottom of the track all the time. When your head shakes like that, it’s very uncomfortable. But the engineers didn’t care, for them the main thing was to make the car fast. For riders, however, speed is also more important than comfort. As we see today, nothing has changed in this regard.

Q: What can you say about Ferrari’s success this year? Will the Scuderia be able to stay at this level until the end of the season to finally win the championship again?
Ricardo Patrese: Yes, I think it is possible. The first races inspire great hope. The Red Bull Racing car has stability issues, otherwise Ferrari would have had a harder time.

You see, everything has changed from before. For example, during the season we could do as much as we wanted to modernize the equipment, in theory the team could build a new car in general. However, under current regulations, this is not possible, mainly due to limited budgets.

And in our time it happened that some teams could be outsiders in the first races of the season, but in the summer they started to win the Grand Prix. Now this is hardly possible. If you start the season with a good car, you immediately get an advantage. And vice versa: if there are problems with the car, it is very difficult to overtake the front runners.

Even if you have good ideas about how to make the car faster, you are limited in resources.

Q: Let’s talk about Mercedes: were you surprised that this team faced difficulties?
Ricardo Patrese: Yes, very surprised. I did not expect that she would have to overcome such serious problems when moving to a new generation of cars. And now I’m very interested: can Mercedes handle all this? One thing is clear: it’s not about the racers.

Q: Today there is a sprint race in Imola: what do you think of this format?
Ricardo Patrese: I have an ambivalent attitude. On the one hand, the fans have the opportunity to watch another race. On the other hand, all this is somewhat artificial. Plus, racers need to be careful on the track, because one mistake is enough and you ruin your Sunday Grand Prix. Therefore, some prefer not to attack with full force.

Perhaps something will change now, as this year the first eight riders will receive points based on the sprint.

Q: Stefano Domenicali, Formula 1 president and CEO, wants the number of stages in the championship to grow to 25 in the medium term, but there are rumors that there may be 30 in the future. Is this the right approach, do you think?
Ricardo Patrese: It’s hard for me to comment on this. In my day the calendar of the season consisted of 16 races and for me personally that was enough. If their numbers ever doubled, it would just be some kind of madness. If I were in Formula 1 now, maybe it would be too much for me.