Brundle: Tyre-warmer ban sensible, provided...

Martin Brundle says he believes the new 2009 technical regulations in Formula 1 are 'a move in the right direction' for the sport, though he echoed leading drivers' fears over the inherent dangers of a ban on tyre-warmers with the top flight set to return to slick rubber next year.

The ITV-F1 commentator - who made 158 starts in the uppermost echelon from 1984 to 1996, achieving a best result of second place amongst his nine podium finishes - is eagerly anticipating next season, when he believes the racing will be even better than has been the case thus far in 2008, what he claims is already an improvement. The return of slick tyres for the first time in more than ten years, a marked reduction in downforce, kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS) and a ban on tyre-warmers are all in the pipeline for 2009.

"This year's changes are a success already," Brundle said in his regular column on the ITV-F1 website. "I love watching the cars without traction control. Even if we haven't seen an outbreak of overtaking, at least the drivers are fighting the cars a bit and aren't just relying on the skill of a software engineer.

"I wholeheartedly support these rule changes. Mind you, I don't think they've knocked enough downforce off, because the engineers will always claw a bit more back than they forecast. That means the cars will probably end up still being too fast and aero-reliant, and overtaking will remain difficult.

"That's inevitable when you have many hundreds of the best technical people in the world complete with vast resources trying to make racing cars go faster, but fundamentally I think these changes are a move in the right direction.

"In my view the re-introduction of grooved tyres in 1998 was one of the worst things to happen to Formula 1. The cars are too knife-edgy and drivers don't have the confidence to pass people under braking.

"It was the wrong way to reduce grip, and we've gone further in the wrong direction since then, adding an extra groove, whilst the cars have sprouted all kinds of ugly appendages on their bodywork which are very susceptible to turbulence from the car in front.

"Anything that replaces grooves with slicks, gets a lot of the clutter off the side of the car, moves the primary downforce to underneath the car and increases braking distances must be a good thing in my book - though I suspect they haven't done all of that yet."

The 48-year-old added that in his view there should be an even greater reduction in downforce levels, as well as moves to keep ever-rising top speeds in-check - something the sport has struggled with since Time Immemorial.

"We're nine months away from the first race of next year," he reasoned, "and you can bet the engineers will recover the rest of the lost speed by then. While people are currently suggesting the cars will have 40 per cent less downforce, it will probably turn out to be more like 25 per cent, which might not be enough to make a real difference to the racing.

"Even stopping the natural escalation of speeds from one year to the next is quite a challenge for the rule-makers, so I suspect they've undershot the target for slowing the cars down - they might even be faster!"

As to the tyre-warming ban, Brundle insisted there was 'a long way to go' before the perfect solution is found, with many of the sport's leading drivers expressing fears that the danger element will be massively increased, as cars leave the pit-lane on stone cold rubber whilst others are travelling along the pit straight flat-out [see separate story - click here].

"The drivers are complaining that the cars are almost undriveable on cold tyres," the former Benetton and McLaren ace stated. "The problem is that contemporary F1 tyres and cars have evolved in such a way that they're extremely sensitive to changes in tyre temperature, pressure, and therefore ride height.

"Until tyres are designed that will work in a larger temperature window, the cars will be a handful. If they're simply a bit slow on cold tyres, that's fine, but it's not fine if you can lose control on a bump in a straight line, or literally can't get around some of the corners at Monaco.

"Also, every so often a team is going to have to repair a car that's rattled along the barriers because the driver has dropped it on cold tyres, so if it's motivated by cost-saving then it makes no sense.

"They manage without tyre blankets in America and in many other forms of racing, but I remember when Mark Blundell and I did some filming in the Williams at Silverstone last year, I was gobsmacked at how difficult the car was to drive once the tyre temperature dropped. Even turning onto Hangar Straight the car was trying to get away from me, having been glued to the track two laps earlier.

"It will be safer in the end though, especially in safety car situations where currently the cars are horrible to drive when the tyres lose temperature and pressure. For me it's eminently sensible to lose tyre warmers - on the proviso that a suitable tyre is evolved."