May 11 (GMM) FIA technical boss Nikolas Tombazis says changes to make F1 cars easier to overtake in 2019 will also make them slower.
Teams have agreed to implement the changes for 2019, mainly involving the front wing.
“We expect the cars to slow down by about 1.5 seconds per lap,” Tombazis said in Barcelona.
But there are upsides.
“The effect of the DRS will increase by about 25 to 30 per cent,” he added.
And he said the aim for the 2021 rules is to get rid of DRS altogether. “Until then, we have to live with it,” Tombazis insisted.
World champion Lewis Hamilton says that if the racing is better, he doesn’t mind if the cars are slower next year.
“If that’s the goal, it will be good,” he said. “For a race to be spectacular, you need to be able to stay within a second of the guy in front of you.
“But we’ve had wider and narrower wings in formula one and the races were not really any better than now,” Hamilton added.