Ecclestone insists there is no crisis in F1

The F1 Times understands that a FOTA meeting scheduled for today will discuss the ‘lack of entertainment’ during the Bahrain GP.

Since the checkered flag fell, drivers, team bosses, fans and the media have all cried out for changes to spice up the action, after a much hyped season started on such a low point.

Bernie Ecclestone insists everyone needs to wait for a few races before assessing what needs to be done, without making ‘knee-jerk changes’.

“There is no panic, no crisis for F1,” he told The Times. “I think there is nothing we can do immediately and we should not just knee-jerk into changes.

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“We are involved in four flyaway races just now so let’s see how the teams adapt and look at it again after China.”

Ecclestone reckons the teams took a cautious approach to Bahrain because the new regulations were unknown territory. He hopes the teams will now try different strategies in light of what they learnt.

“The first race with new regulations was always going to be a learning curve for them all. Now they know they can make improvements and be a bit bolder and we will get more action.”

One proposal is to enforce teams to stop twice, Ecclestone, however, doesn’t think all the teams will agree.

“I am not sure that they will vote unanimously for a mandatory two-stop race which Red Bull proposed.

“It is basically the same problem we have had for the last few years about downforce and cars not being able to get close to the one in front to create more overtaking.

“The teams know this but they won’t do anything about it because each team looks after its own interests: trying to win.

“I had a meeting with the teams and tried to explain to them what our business is about – racing and entertaining the public. It’s not about playing with computers and going fast over one lap.”