The rise of driver power in Formula 1

For the first time in the history of Formula 1 the drivers have been invited to play a formal role in helping to steer change in the series as we head towards the 2021 revamp - and world champion Lewis Hamilton is among those enthusiastically leading the charge.

A man whose schedule often involves him using his free time between grand prix weekends to get as far away from racing as he can recently took a day out to go to Paris and talk to the bosses of F1, the FIA and the teams about what direction the drivers would like to see the championship take.

And he came back buzzing with enthusiasm about the fact that he was listened to and that the drivers as a collective body now have a voice.

"We've never been in that room before," Hamilton said a few days after the gathering. "I really think we had an impact - they were, 'Oh shoot, we do need the drivers here'.

"The fact that it's taken them so long to realise that is not so great. But on the positive side they've listened, and I like to think they're welcoming us to be in the decision process."

Over the decades the Grand Prix Drivers' Association has generally kept its focus on safety issues. Of late the body has spread its wings and now it's playing an active role in other areas.

That hasn't been obvious until now, but the Paris meeting, a precursor of others to come, indicated that the story has changed.

"The GPDA's focus is the issues of the sport," says Carlos Sainz Jr. "The issue 20 years ago, or 10 years ago, was safety. Now it's the show, so the GPDA focuses on the things that concern us as drivers, as we see the future of our sport.

"And it's definitely not a matter of criticising the sport or anything like that. It's just we want this place to be a better place for the young drivers of tomorrow, and for me in 10 years' time, if I'm still here. We just want to make it a better place."

The man largely responsible for that change is GPDA chairman Alex Wurz, who raced in F1 from 1997 to 2007. The Austrian was still an active World Endurance Championship driver, as well as a Williams advisor and television pundit, when he was invited to take over the role in 2014.

"The future directions and decisions of F1, be they short or long-term, sporting, technical or business orientated, should be based on a clear masterplan" Drivers' letter in 2016

Initially he was reluctant, due to time constraints. Then he addressed the drivers in a meeting on the Friday of that year's Japanese GP and agreed to take it on.

With tragic timing, Jules Bianchi's crash just two days later showed that the need for a drivers' voice is ever present.

"I came in exactly that weekend when Jules had the accident," Wurz says. "They asked me to come, I addressed the drivers on the Friday and they asked me what I thought was in the interest of the drivers. I gave them a presentation of what I thought, that the drivers had to ensure that the GPDA was a strong body.

"I said I have no time, I don't really want to do it, but you need to look at these key points. They said could I not help them to get this body engaged?

"I get nothing from it, not a single euro, but I feel that the sport has given me a lot, and the drivers support me, and I see the GPDA now with 100% membership [among current F1 drivers].

"The GPDA fundamentally came in on safety, but we are standing for three major things. We see the GPDA as for our fans, our sport, our safety. That's our hashtag."

In fact Wurz set out his agenda on the day he was elected as chairman. In the press release that announced his appointment the GPDA set out the five principles that Wurz had outlined in their meeting.

The first two, ahead of any safety reference, were: "Reach out to our fans, add more value, inspire more passion and help build a new generation of followers," and "cooperate with the rulemakers and rights holders especially as they seek to make racing ever more exciting."

For the most part lobbying by the drivers on Wurz's watch has gone on unnoticed. But at the 2016 Bahrain GP, in the middle of the debate about the controversial elimination qualifying system, the drivers took an unusual step and made their feelings known via an open letter.

"You remember that public letter we sent, which caused a little bit of a ripple in Bahrain?" says Wurz. "Basically it happened when we had very strange, ad hoc rule changes. You can read it again, it remains our full opinion."

Indeed it's worth recalling what was said in the letter, signed by Wurz and then directors Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button. They referenced recent unpopular rule changes and in a bold and unprecedented move questioned F1's governance system.

They added: "The future directions and decisions of F1, be they short or long-term, sporting, technical or business orientated, should be based on a clear masterplan.

"We need to ensure that F1 remains a sport, a closely-fought competition between the best drivers in extraordinary machines on the coolest racetracks. F1 should be home only to the best teams, drivers and circuits, with partners and suppliers fit for such an elite championship."

Inevitably they got short shrift from Bernie Ecclestone, who had spent decades trying to ensure that the drivers kept their focus on safety.

In stark contrast the suggestion of a "clear masterplan" is exactly what Ross Brawn has adopted since Liberty Media took control of F1 10 months after those words were written.

Even before Bahrain 2016 the drivers had been working away in the background, and the successful fan survey - conducted in conjunction with Motorsport.com - was a rare public example of how they now saw the bigger picture. More was going on behind the scenes.

"We have always been in contact with the stakeholders," says Wurz. "But we have been working for a few years now totally below the radar, not in the media, because the media always creates pressure. With wrong timing you kill something we've been working towards.

"It worked very beautifully to have those wide cars with the fat tyres and faster lap times, which we promoted for a long time. If we had publicly demanded it we would have probably not got it, because you're then down to speculation via media.

"We prefer to be in stealth mode! And we're completely unbiased by team politics, which are short-term driven."

Two things are key to the GPDA's current strength. First, the ousting of Ecclestone and arrival of Liberty and Brawn has completely changed the political landscape, and the new management is much more receptive. And FIA president Jean Todt has also become much more open to driver input.

Second, the drivers now have a genuinely united voice. Some of the biggest names were among the stragglers - Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen - reluctant to get involved in the GPDA, but they are now on board as full members. And crucially the majority opinion becomes the official view of all.

"We changed some things the way the GPDA works," says Wurz. "And everyone was happy and on board and is fully engaged. They were always staying in the meetings, even if they were not members.

"The GPDA represents all of their opinions that have been checked and spoken about with the drivers, and I'm very immaculate on this. Anything which I know that the majority of drivers agree or don't agree, that becomes my personal opinion."

Romain Grosjean, who has never been afraid to state an opinion and who replaced Button as a GPDA director, agrees that a united voice is crucial.

"The drivers' voice comes through the GPDA, and it's something that's been majority voted," he says. "So let's say two drivers want something for one team because they think they've got an advantage, maybe 18 of us are going to say, 'No, we don't want that, we want this'.

"That's the idea that's going to be brought forward. So it's actually a really good system. Same for the weight. The 80kg with the seat for the driver's weight came from the GPDA. There were a couple of drivers that were against it.

"It's a vote, as long as we've got 50.1% of the drivers on the same boat, then that's the rule. So that's what we want to push forward. There is no political game, there is no financial game."

That united voice was reflected a couple of weeks ago when for the first time the drivers were invited to participate in the Paris meeting.

Wurz was joined there by Hamilton and Nico Hulkenberg, while Grosjean had to cancel at the last minute after a burglary at his home.

Some observers suggested that just two active racers was a poor turnout, but it was planned that way.

"Between the guys available we wanted to be at least three," says Wurz. "Especially at the first meeting. Now they understand it is the collective body and there's no question with Jean or Ross or anyone who was there."

"It's the truth, we're all together, so we don't need to all go there," says Raikkonen. "It's pointless for all of us to go. I'm sure they're not even letting all of us in there, they have other things also to agree on in there.

"That's why we have a GPDA. We're all in the same boat, so certain people should go there and deal with that stuff."

Verstappen has a similar view about the collective voice: "I think it's not necessary that all 20 drivers go in there, because if we all share the same ideas, maybe we only need two or three to be there.

"Like Ross said with Lewis, if he can represent all 20 drivers, together maybe with two other drivers, then it's a good thing, because at the end of the day we are driving the cars, so we actually really feel what's going on while racing."

Hamilton's enthusiastic presence at the Paris meeting was a demonstration that he has fully embraced his role as one of the most influential people in motorsport.

"I've been talking to Alex for a long time," he said that week. "I've always been quiet really, because there are a lot of outspoken people in the drivers' briefing and the GPDA, and I didn't always agree necessarily with some of the things that have been said. I just felt over the last couple of years it kind of aligned, and also we all joined together.

"Sometimes drivers express opinions which are totally 100% against their team's opinion, because the drivers actually love the sport" Alex Wurz

"I just realised the position of responsibility I have as the driver with the most championships, meaning when it comes to speaking to the FIA, if they listen at all to any of us, the drivers that have been here a little bit longer and are truly experienced with multiple different tyres and aero packages, hopefully have the better understanding and info that we can give.

"I see the mess that we're in and I see it every year constantly. I said to the guys, 'I'll go', and I committed to going."

For Hamilton, Paris was a real eye-opener and he has since talked at length about the big picture of 2021 and what he'd learned of the ins and outs of the politics.

"It was really constructive, it was really awesome. They sat and listened to us and we spoke about the topics for a decent period of time. It actually made the meeting way, way longer.

"They didn't go 'Thanks' and move on, they really took it on board. I really, really think there were lots of positives from it. It will be interesting to see how it evolves.

"But we need to be in the next meeting and part of the next chain of emails that's happening, so we can have [an input], even if it's the small things, like the tyres, or the [car] weight thing for example, whatever it may be."

The good news is that the drivers will indeed have a voice in a series of ongoing meetings in 2021, which can only be a positive. Nevertheless, Wurz is under no illusions - the GPDA is just one participant and others are pulling in different directions.

"The feedback we got from everyone was that it was extremely welcome that we were there, and what we presented," he says. "We're not stupid, we know it's a business.

"Certain things drivers would like to have or see are simply not feasible in the business terms and contracts which F1 is engaged in for the long term. We're not silly, we know that.

"I've seen that a lot of people are willing and interested to put the sport in the right direction, but as you know, and each and every word is very considered, it's normal for an F1 team to act in its own interest. So we're happy that the GPDA works as a completely independent body.

"Some of the drivers who have been speaking to the stakeholders or in this meeting sometimes express opinions which are totally 100% against their team's opinion, because the drivers actually love the sport.

"So you cannot have a more pure opinion than the drivers, because we see it only for what we loved in childhood to continue for the next generations."

The intriguing aspect of the timing is that we are in a one-off situation where decisions for 2021 fall outside the established governance process - and perhaps the drivers really can make a difference.

"I'm fully aware of that, and Jean Todt, who actually was the key person to have the drivers in the meeting, we spoke long with him before, after and during the meeting," says Wurz.

"He rightly says that we are putting in place those next five years of F1, but probably also the aftermath. We know that it's crucial for the sport, with such a fast change of behaviour in society, and how we consume sport, news, how we spend our free time. It's a crucial period for us."

And while his main focus may be on securing that sixth title, Hamilton clearly wants to play an active role in the process.

"I've been here a long, long time," he says. "And the thing I'd really love to have, if I look at my legacies, I'd love to look back and say I was a part of helping that positive change for the fans that are watching F1 even beyond my time.

"That will be a cool thing to be a part of, not just a driver who won titles, someone who actually cared about the sport."