Brawn reveals frustration with car 'oddities'

Cape Town - Formula 1’s managing director of motorsport Ross Brawn has bemoaned the return of 'shark fins' and other "oddities" that he hopes will be eventually outlawed.

New owners Liberty Media are wanting to change the image of Formula 1 and make it a more attractive, exciting sport to watch.

However, the new aerodynamic regulations brought in by the old regime has led to some cars being branded 'ugly' due to all the extras attached.

“Part of the sales pitch for these new rules was nicer-looking cars,” Brawn told Motorsport.com.

“We’ve only half achieved that, haven’t we, because we’ve got all these oddities – shark fins and t-wings and more bits surrounding the turning vanes than I’ve seen for a long time.

“That’s OK, that’s understandable with a new set of rules, but the next iteration has got to make sure that we don’t – even if it’s only for aesthetics.

“You know, the frustrating thing is that Jean Todt has had this bee in his bonnet, which is valid in a way, to put the number on the side of the car so that the fan in the grandstand can see what car he’s looking at.

"Because not every fan is knowledgeable enough to recognise the helmet and all the rest of it.

“We came up with the shark fin [idea for that], because the shark fin was the easy addition to put a big number on. And half of the teams said 'we’re not going to have that on our cars, that’s terrible'.

"It was tested. We had photographs and everything, and everyone said, 'that’s horrible, we don’t want that.' ”