Why F1 drivers think reversed grids are "bull****"

The two most successful current Formula 1 drivers didn't mince their words when asked to comment about the prospect of reversed-grid races in 2020.

"I don't really know what to say," smiled Lewis Hamilton. "The people that proposed that don't really know what they're talking about."

Sebastian Vettel was substantially less diplomatic.

"I think it is complete bullshit, to be honest," he said. "We know that if we want to improve things it's very clear we need to string the field more together, we need to have better racing. It's just a plaster. I don't know which genius came up with it, but it's not the solution. It's completely the wrong approach."

At first glance, those criticisms appear to fly in the face of what had seemed like constructive talks between drivers and the F1 chiefs about where the championship's rules go heading towards the new era from 2021.

As part of a push from Grand Prix Drivers' Association chairman Alex Wurz to get the drivers more actively involved in that process, representatives have been sent to recent meetings to offer their input.

Hamilton himself made the effort to be one of the first to attend such a meeting, and he hailed it as a 'gamechanger' for F1's future direction.

"For all these years, the GPDA was a group but it wasn't united - there wasn't all the drivers in there, we didn't work together," he explains. "Now we do work together and we discuss things. But we've just got in a position of being involved in the FIA's meetings, for example.

"I think they had invited us in the past, but we weren't allowed to be a part of it, you know? You go and you can listen, but we didn't have any input. Whereas now, I went to the meeting in France and we were heard for the first time, so I'm sure now we can work closely with them."

Since the teams, Liberty Media and the FIA are pushing on with the idea of reversed grids, Vettel and Hamilton's flat-out opposition to the notion could perhaps be interpreted as evidence that the drivers have been wasting their time - that they're not being listened to.

GPDA director Grosjean is clear that the issue for drivers isn't politics or protecting their position; it's about delivering an F1 that is right for the fans

But the reality is that the drivers' criticisms aren't about reversed grids themselves; they're about ensuring F1 keeps pushing towards sorting out the real issues at the core of its problems.

Reversed grids are ultimately an answer to a problem that should not exist. If the grid is close competitively, and cars can battle and race each other properly, you don't need to try to shake things up artificially.

GPDA director Romain Grosjean says there are four key issues that the drivers are demanding be implemented, and not one of them involves gimmicks.

"The GPDA point is that, and it's from 100% of drivers, that the problem is not the way the weekends are, the problems are bigger than that," explains the Haas driver. "We're not trying to address things with a small spoon when a good old pan will do the job. It's tyres; why there is such a big gap [on track] between the cars: because the tyres are just so sensitive.

"It's money distribution. When the money is spread out like this, how can you get a close championship? Then it's weight of the car, which is very much related to helping the tyres. And aero sensitivity, which F1 is working on.

"We believe that if those four points are sorted then the championship doesn't need any tricks or whatever.

"We haven't seen tennis change the way they do tournaments because Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have been winning [so much]. But, at the moment, we're going with a ping pong bat to a match where Nadal has a tennis racket."

Grosjean is clear that the issue for drivers isn't politics or protecting their position; it's about delivering an F1 that is right for the fans.

"We're trying the best we can," he says. "We don't have any political interest, we don't have any financial interest, we only have this love of our sport. So, 100% of drivers are united on those points and much more. We are the only ones united."

Carlos Sainz Jr even suggests that if F1 can tick off the four elements that the drivers want addressed, and produce the right rules for the cars and racing in 2021, then reversed grids wouldn't be talked about at all.

"Once we have a 2021 with cars that are able to follow, a whole grid within one second and every driver able to make the difference, we might not need any of those changes," explains the McLaren driver.

"We might have the best F1 ever without any of those [format] changes. So why don't we focus on making F1 how it should be? Which is closer competition, more equal money distribution and cars that are able to follow each other. Then all of a sudden you have a good F1 and maybe you don't need all the other stuff."

But what is clear is that for now the drivers are probably going to have to put up with a few reversed-grid races next year, just so F1 can actually test the theory.

As F1 director of motorsport Ross Brawn said in response to the driver criticisms: "I want to emphasise the word 'experiment' because this is what it is about - a small sample to establish the directions for the future.

"We're all too aware that the current qualifying format is exciting and spectacular but what is also important is to make sure that the race, the highlight of the weekend, is the best it can be. And since, no matter how many simulations you run, there's no measure more accurate than the track."

It could be that the experiments throw up unintended consequences, that it proves too difficult for the top drivers to come through the pack, or that the Sunday spectacle is weakened. In that case, the whole idea will be binned just like elimination qualifying.

But there could also be a scenario where the reversed grid events are a huge success and result in some truly spectacular grands prix.

However, if F1 is then equally confident that its 2021 rules are showing such promise, it could back away from taking the new format beyond next year anyway.

That could provoke some more interesting driver responses.