Bernie Ecclestone has likened Formula 1 to that of an old house which needs pulling down and re-building from scratch, adding that the opinion of fans should also be considered.
The 84-year-old made the comments to German television station ZDF during a joint-interview with friend and former FIA president Max Mosley.
He said if it were up to him, he would “tear the rule book up, get a few competent people together and rewrite the Formula 1 regulations”.
He failed to expand on who those competent people might be, but suggested F1 fans should have a say because they’re the ones the sport needs to appease.
“We mustn’t forget we’re in the entertainment business, so we ought to have rules the public want,” he said.
“We should be asking the public ‘What do you not like about Formula 1 today?’ and ‘What did you like about Formula 1 before?’
“People will say ‘Ecclestone you’re getting too old. The young kids today are a bit different’, so we have to have a complete rethink.
“With these rules, it’s like an old Victorian house, where people keep doing things to it, it needs pulling down and restarting again.
“You can’t cross this line out, put that in place of that. It’s not what you want.”
Ecclestone was also critical of the level of technology used in the sport and particularly the way engineers manage the drivers and cars.
“The drivers sit there on the starting grid and there is an engineer that starts the race. It’s just not on.
“It should be when the lights go off they are on their own. They don’t need somebody telling them their team-mate is doing this through that corner, or whatever.”
