The announcement that refuelling would return in 2017 split fans, with roughly half commenting that they supported the proposal, whilst the remainder believed it was a step backwards.
It seems the drivers too are undecided, though the majority back its return amongst a raft of other changes.
When asked to answer yes or no in response to the question, ‘Would you like to see refuelling return’, only Marcus Ericsson was against its return.
“I like it as it is now,” the Sauber driver replied, though it’s worth noting he never raced during the refuelling period, which is the same for Valtteri Bottas. However the Finn is more open to the idea: “I’ve never tried refuelling so maybe it would be nice to try,” he added.
Those who did race during the last refuelling period, which ended in 2010, were also open to its return, with McLaren’s Jenson Button supporting it on a racing basis, but not a safety or cost point of view.
“You obviously have the safety aspect – the reason we went away from refuelling – and also the money, the cost,” he noted.
“In terms of racing, I think it was great, back in the day when we had refuelling. If you had an issue on lap one, you could change your race around, you could do something different – whereas now it’s very difficult…”
Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen both responded with a simple “yes”, whilst Romain Grosjean added: “Don’t care.”
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