Slowing down F1 won’t hurt, says Irvine

The 1999 World Championship runner-up spoke after lap times at Melbourne tumbled due to the huge leap forwards in tyre development over the winter, sparked by Michelin's return to the formula. He thinks it is time for the 820bhp, V10 engines to have their wings clipped.

"Reducing performance is a difficult question," Irvine told Autosport's sister publication Autocar. "Off the top of my head, I wouldn't think it would be a problem to reduce engine capacity and have, say, a V6 if you want to cut speed.

"In fact, it would slow speeds quite a lot and I don't think that would hurt Formula 1," he added.

McLaren's managing director Martin Whitmarsh agrees that reducing the potency of engines would be the best way of slowing speeds in F1.

"I personally would support the move to a 2.5-litre engine regulation," he said. "Although clearly we would have to discuss it with our engine partners Mercedes-Benz."

FIA president Max Mosley has said speeds will be closely monitoring in Malaysia this weekend after the top teams found a gain of almost three-seconds-per-lap in Australia. Over the winter, the FIA reduced downforce in a premeditated attempt to stop speeds increasing, but Mosley is not happy with what he saw in Melbourne.

"The impression is that the sums were not right," said Mosley. "We don't want to jump the gun but if Malaysia and Brazil were to confirm, as I fear, the position at Melbourne, then the FIA must act quickly."