Ricciardo hoping for new racier F1 era after 'dragster' years

Daniel Ricciardo is hoping for a racier era of F1 with the introduction of its new cars as the sport moves away from its 'dragster' look.

F1 will compete under radically altered regulations that have overhauled the aerodynamic structure of the sport which is aiming for closer, more exciting racing.

With components being taken from the top face of the cars in favour of the re-introduction of ground-effect, F1 machinery will be considerably lower with less rake from front to back.

It is something McLaren driver Ricciardo feels will lend the new breed to similarities with F2.

Asked in an end-of-season interview whether the new car was feeling different on the simulator, Ricciardo replied: "So far, it does feel pretty different.

"It's still early, we expect to still find a lot more, call it downforce, before the start of the season.

"The cars are going to be so much lower. Obviously, for years now we've seen F1 cars look like dragsters. They're going to look more like F2s now with a lot lower rears.

"That's going to affect curbing, grounding. Just the feeling in the car should be quite a lot different. That alone, I'm sure that will affect the balance.

"In a way, I hope it's a new era of Formula 1. I hope it's an era where we can really… I mean, racing - the season [was] awesome [last] year, but there are still tracks where it's really hard to follow and overtake.

"So I really hope that it can give something like that. F2 have pretty exciting races. Obviously, all the cars are the same, but I like to think some of these rules could help Formula 1 out, and I think that's obviously the direction we're going."

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