Hamilton thinks F2 sounds and races better than F1

2017 Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton believes that F1's feeder sport, Formula 2, has better sounding cars and better racing than the senior level and has questioned why this is the case, even though Liberty Media are making strides towards increasing the competition's brand awareness.

Hamilton was speaking at the BRDC Awards on Monday evening and lamented a lack of noise coming from the cars currently in Formula One, insisting that the lower level of F2 sounded better and also had closer traffic during races.

"From a racing driver's point of view you just want to be able to race closely like you could in karts," said the Mercedes driver.

"Kart racing is the best form of racing still, because the guys follow each other so closely.

"The cars this year are the best they've ever been. Looking at the next step, I believe Ross [Brawn] and Chase and the teams are really working hard to make sure that the next cars in 2021, they're even more raw.

"I hope they make the cars louder. You can have bigger tyres. Why did Jackie [Stewart] have big tyres back in the day and we've got smaller tyres? Maybe a little less downforce, maybe we can race closer.

"There's no reason why a GP2 race or F2 or whatever you want to call it should be louder and sound better, and be able to have better racing, and follow closer.

"And that's what we've somehow got to make in F1, while it's still faster than the other classes."

Despite his dissatisfaction with some aspects of the sport like the lack of noise coming from the cars, Hamilton recognised Liberty Media's attempts at making F1 more of a global phenomenon.

"Formula 1 has been a little bit behind other sports. It's such a special sport.

"And you look at the NFL, you look at soccer, you look at all these other sports which happen to have a little bit more of a global awareness – I think F1 has the scope to be as big as those.

"I think the great thing with Chase and the team from Liberty coming in is they've really brought something new into the mix this year, whilst they're learning at the same time about the sport, and what the fans want."