Alonso: F1 should consider football's approach to rule changes

While admitting that Formula 1’s current technical regulations fail to capture his attention as much they did back in the mid-2000s, Alonso warned against knee-jerk changes.

He said that the sport has at times suffered from ‘better back then’ syndrome, constantly believing that things were better in the past.

Instead, the McLaren driver says a more traditional view on regulations is needed, just like the world game.

“It is an issue. Sometimes we want to improve things that are already quite good,” said the Spaniard.

“Like in football, how many games there are that finish 0-0? They are very boring, but they don’t change the penalty area, they don’t change to put two goalkeepers, no goalkeepers. They don’t change every week. Because it’s the sport.

“I think we had a fantastic era with the V10s, the V8s, and sometimes safety had to improve and there were some changes to improve that. But we seem always more happy with what we had a couple of years ago.”

Modern era still not exciting enough

While wary of looking back with rose-tinted glasses, Alonso added that the current turbo era does, in his opinion, struggle to keep up with the era that came before it in terms of excitement.

“I still love the cars, I still love the sport, and I still enjoy coming here. But also, being honest, the last couple of years in Formula 1 the excitement, the show, has been a little bit worse with the turbo engines,” he said.

“Starting from the noise, the lap-times, the fuel saving, the tyre saving. I think the excitement of driving those cars is a little bit less.

“It’s still not as powerful or as exciting as, maybe 2004, 2003 cars with V10 engines. I remember going to the first test, and after 60 or 70 laps I was very tired. Even at night, the head was moving because the neck was stressed so much. I couldn’t sleep horizontal. Now, you go to the first test and do 160 laps. 

"And also some regulation changes, some political changes, that didn’t help.

“The sport in general, also the drivers, we feel that lack of consistency. The same with the radio communications, off, half, nothing, back to normal. The same with whatever, it seems that we are running in a loop. It’s a little bit confusing for everyone.”

Additional reporting by Jonathan Noble