MOTORSPORT: Ferrari wants F1 sound 'like heavy metal'

Ferrari, in a long title drought and without a single race win in the new era of hybrid cars in Formula One, is screaming for a rules revolution by 2017, with cars making noise "like a heavy metal band".

"A real revolution is called for, with significant and radical changes," says Maurizio Arrivabene, the new principal of F1's longest-running, most revered and – over the course of history – most successful team.

Arrivabene endorsed triple world champion Niki Lauda's call for cars with 1000 horsepower, or even 1200hp – increases of a third to almost a half on what the cars have now – and fatter tyres to make them harder to drive.

Lauda won two of his titles with Ferrari but ironically now is chairman of the Mercedes team that dominated last year's championship and is a red-hot favourite for a repeat this year.

And, while Ferrari would happily see hybrid technology around the 1.6-litre V6 engines dispensed with, Lauda said it must stay.

F1 technical chiefs have been discussing what they want beyond next year and team bosses will meet early next month as this year's cars, to be revealed in the next week, are tested in Spain ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in mid-March.

Lauda and Arrivabene have warned of F1 losing popularity without major changes, although trials last year to make the hybrids noisier were abandoned as a failure.

Arrivabene, previously an executive at Phillip Morris – a long-time Ferrari sponsor, even though it can no longer displayed its Marlboro logo – was installed as team principal at the end of last season after Marco Mattiaci had just eight months in the job.

He said Lauda was "top of the class" as an F1 authority, while he was "sitting about four desks further back".

"I share Niki's view that F1 needs to be more spectacular and I believe that the risk he evokes of the sport losing fans is something that has unfortunately already happened," Arrivabene said.

"By 2017 I too would like to see cars that win over the fans, with cars that they can get closer to and that are aesthetically more appealing, maybe even producing a noise that gets your hair standing on end, like that produced by a heavy metal band.

"I don't think a simple evolution is enough. Instead, a real revolution is called for, with significant and radical changes ... more power, higher speeds, not necessarily involving the use of more fuel, but definitely applying a cost reduction to those components that are of little interest to the general public.

"The real competition to F1 today, in the sense of it being a show, comes from a variety of forms of entertainment, not least from the internet, including racing video games.

"It is up to us to provide something better and to download a new format for F1 as soon as possible.

"A global survey on the internet and via the TV companies would give us a real idea of what people want.

"In this area of sport as entertainment we should follow the trend of demand driving what's on offer."

Paul Hembrey, of F1's monopoly tyre supplier Pirelli, has predicted that this year's cars will be up to three seconds a lap quicker than the first season's hybrids because of advances with the power units.

"The teams have had the ability to change things over the [northern] winter, particularly on the powertrain front, and we anticipate by the time we are in Melbourne, or at the latest China [the third GP in mid-April], we will see some pretty significant jumps compared to last season," Hembrey said.

That could see cars lapping again at the speeds they did in the previous era of V8 engines.

But it still leaves the issue of the sound of the hybrid cars, which F1 commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone and Australian GP organisers were especially critical of last year.

Lauda said he wanted to see "a futuristic car that attracts the fans for at least five years".

"It should have 1200hp, plus wide tyres and aerodynamic characteristics which delivers a steep power curve that becomes very critical at the limit," Lauda said.

"The hybrid technology should remain, but we need more power. This can be achieved if you allow bigger fuel cells and more fuel flow."