Berger: Rules to blame for F1 problems

Sep.10 - Gerhard Berger says one of F1's biggest problems today are the rules.

The F1 legend and former ten-time grand prix winner says he now watches on television but finds the races hard to follow due to complicated regulations.

"We are all so fond of a four-way battle for victory," Berger told Austrian Servus TV, "not an endless discussion the next day about a stupid tyre issue."

Berger is referring, of course, to the long post-Monza stewards enquiry about tyre pressures that almost cost Lewis Hamilton victory.

The great Austrian blames the rules, not Mercedes.

"The error was due to the precise execution and a precise definition of the regulations," said Berger, who until recently served as a single seater commissioner for F1's governing FIA.

"But when a tyre should be measured and under what circumstances should not be the main theme of a race weekend," he insisted.

"The rules are so complex," Berger continued, "and there are specialists in the teams who are occupied only with finding grey areas.

"My criticism does not apply to Mercedes," he added, "but to the FIA, who write the rules, which should instead be as accurate as possible so that the teams cannot find these gaps.

"I personally know all the people who write the rules, and they are good people," said Berger. "But it seems to me that sometimes they no longer see the forest for the trees.

"They are constantly trying to facilitate the racing, for example with this adjustable rear wing, but then they wanted these contemporary regulations with all the hybrid systems and then said that you (the teams) can't develop them.

"For me, it seems that everything doesn't fit together," he added.

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