Formula 1's Latest Rumours and Talk: GPDA Survey, Pastor Maldonado, More

The first set of results from the Formula One GDPA's fan survey have been published and the results don't make pretty reading. A whopping 89 percent of respondents say the sport needs to be more competitive, while 77 percent think F1's business interests are having too much influence.

By contrast, just 45 percent feel the current crop of drivers represent the world's best, and over half of the fans in the weighted sample used have stopped watching live races due to coverage switching to pay-TV providers.

And the three words most would use to describe F1? Expensive, technological and boring.

Away from the survey and looking ahead to the British Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton is hoping to get his hands on the winner's trophy. But the 2008 and 2014 world champion—who has plenty of experience in the field—thinks the trinkets given to podium finishers have declined in quality over the years.

Hamilton would like to see each race have its own unique trophy for the winner, awarded year after year—something like the famous gold trophy he asked for on the podium of last year's Silverstone race.

Elsewhere, Honda have revealed the areas they are targeting for spending their seven power-unit upgrade tokens, Pastor Maldonado feels getting advice from an experienced older hand would not be beneficial, and two leading F1 figures have dismissed the idea that Formula E could be bigger than F1 in the next five years.

Read on for a full roundup of the top stories from the last few days.

GPDA Fan Survey Publishes Selected Results

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A selection of results from the GPDA Fan Survey has been revealed, suggesting fans want to see closer racing, fewer gimmicks and less influence from the sport's business side.

Fans who took part also said they want to see competition between tyre suppliers, more relaxed rules and more work done to attract and keep fans.

The "executive summary" was released on Motorsport.com along with a statement from GPDA chairman and ex-Benetton, Williams and McLaren driver Alex Wurz. He said:

"

The response was overwhelming: more than 200,000 of you replied with 52,000 man hours spent completing the biggest survey of its kind in sport. The results are staggering and the underlying message that has come out of it is clear.

Yes, ‎Formula One is facing its challenges and can be improved. But you do not believe it needs a revolution and you do not want it to become an artificial show with gimmicks introduced to simply make it more entertaining.

Instead, you want the very same thing that us drivers want: pure racing amongst the best men in the best machines.

It is now time for us to look in close detail at the findings of the survey and from there work with F1's key stakeholders to make sure they listen and consider your input carefully.

"

The summary doesn't go into great detail, but it still presents some very interesting figures. Some 88 percent of fans believe F1 needs to attract the best drivers in the world; only 45 percent feel it already does. Along similar lines, only 60 percent of respondents think F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport.

Tyre competition is backed by 80 percent, a return of refuelling by 60 percent and a budget cap by 54 percent. The idea of giving points for setting the fastest lap received 51 percent support—but other, more currently relevant proposals didn't fare well.

Customers cars in any form received just 44 percent backing, the promotion of fuel efficiency was supported by 32 percent and only 14 percent were in favour of fewer teams running more cars (three- or four-car teams).

And only 40 percent of fans thought DRS had improved the racing.

However, a number of key figures have already suggested the results go against what F1 is trying to achieve, with Autosport carrying a number of quotes.

Manor president Graeme Lowdon said, "People forget, no one used to overtake in the refuelling days, it was all done in the pitstops. Sadly I think a bit of amnesia has crept in from the fans with regard to those two things."

Pirelli boss Paul Hembery also weighed in, saying, "If you want exciting racing, the survey results go against that. A team will spend a lot of money on the best tyres and the best engine and there will be no overtaking and they'll disappear into the distance."

McLaren racing director Eric Boullier said of refuelling, "The problem with refuelling is you get into a computer-driven strategy with no flexibility. Today you can mix-up the strategy quite a bit, which you wouldn't be able to if you had to refuel." Toto Wolff of Mercedes said it would "limit the variance on strategy and you will see less overtaking."

And Red Bull team principal Christian Horner warned of the realities of a tyre war, reminding us that the tyre companies in the past built their tyres around a primary team (Ferrari for Bridgestone, Renault for Michelin) and the other teams just got what they were given.

Whatever the survey results say, in a battle between the fans and the people in charge, there's only ever going to be one outcome.

Pastor Maldonado Not Interested in Advice

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Pastor Maldonado has rejected the idea of asking an experienced, retired driver for advice—something which benefited team-mate Romain Grosjean.

The Frenchman had previously spoken to Sir Jackie Stewart. Per BBC Sport's Simon Austin, the three-time world champion offered his wisdom after Grosjean was involved in a string of first-lap incidents in 2012.

But Maldonado doesn't think doing the same would be of any use to him. When asked if he would consider it, he was quoted by Autosport saying:

"

I don't think so to be honest.

It's very difficult to have someone who is not driving, who doesn't know the conditions and how the car itself feels. It's especially difficult with the tyres we have now to understand, even for us, the feeling in real time.

It's a bit complicated for someone external to say something. I think we are all professionals here, all with a lot of experience. We've been driving for many years, we know what to do when dealing with a championship or team strategies.

I wouldn't choose anyone. It's a single-seater car, not a rally car...

"

Though he spent much of his early F1 career embroiled in controversy, becoming good friends with the barriers and other drivers' cars, Maldonado has genuinely upped his game of late.

Without issues beyond his control, he would have scored points in at least five of the eight races so far, and outside of qualifying he has not been overshadowed by highly rated team-mate Grosjean.

It may be tempting fate, but he appears to have solved his own problems.

Lewis Hamilton Wants Proper Trophies Back in Formula 1

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Lewis Hamilton with the offending trophy last season.

Lewis Hamilton has bemoaned the poor quality of trophies in F1 a year after openly criticising his prize for winning the 2014 British Grand Prix.

Instead of the gold RAC trophy, which he was presented with after his 2008 Silverstone win, Hamilton received something all too common in the modern era—a small, cheap-looking trophy based on the logo of Santander, the event sponsors.

Per the Daily Mail's Jonathan McEvoy, Hamilton later said, "While it is a real privilege being on top of the podium, my trophy fell to pieces. It must have cost £10. It’s so bad."

Speaking at a Petronas promotional event ahead of this year's race, Hamilton repeated his desire for better mementos. He was quoted by the Telegraph's Daniel Johnson, saying:

"

We just need to make better trophies—it’s shocking how bad the trophies are. The trophies are as good as...at go kart level, it was really bad. Formula Renault was just little boxes with a car in the middle. Formula Three was good, and at the beginning of my Formula One career the trophies were really good.

But now they are just terrible man. They are so bad. I told Bernie and he got the trophy guy in the room and I just said, ‘you know’.

It would be great if each country had a real trophy like that, with character that grew over the years because of the history. I don’t know why they don’t make them the same any more.

"

Many of the trophies given out in the modern era are in some way linked to the event sponsor—millions of TV viewers around the world watch the podium ceremony and many media outlets carry photographs of the presentations. Placing your logo right there in the driver's hands is a great way to increase exposure.

A proper, traditional winner's trophy for each grand prix, presented again and again over the years like the football World Cup or the Indy 500's Borg-Warner Trophy, would be great; the winner could have a replica made and return the real cup the following year.

But if Hamilton wins on Sunday, he's in for more disappointment. At the Petronas event, he also criticised the Austria and Monaco trophies, both of which were based on a map of the host circuit—and Silverstone posted a sneak peek on its Twitter account of this year's offering.

It looks like another circuit map.

Maybe next year...

Formula 1 Figures Dismiss Formula E as a Competitor

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Leading F1 figures have dismissed Formula E as a serious competitor after Richard Branson claimed the fledgling series would overtake the world leader within five years.

Speaking at the Formula E series finale, Branson—founder of the Virgin Group that raced in F1 before the team was sold to Marussia and that now runs a Formula E team—was quoted by ESPN as saying:

"

I think four or five years from now you'll find Formula E overtaking Formula One in terms of number of people [watching] and more and more, as time goes on, clean energy businesses are going to power ahead of other businesses.

There's still going to be room for Formula One for a few more years but I would say there will come a time when Formula E will overtake it.

"

But Red Bull team principal Christian Horner disagrees. He said (h/t BBC Sport's Andrew Benson):

"

Formula E has done well to get where they are, but you can't compare it in the same sentence to Formula One. It's positioned totally differently to Formula One. The cars look slow.

I watched the Formula E race on Sunday and it looks more of a competitor to GP3 than Formula One.

The fact that you've got to change car halfway through the race—I'm not sure it's delivering a great message about sustainable energy if you're saying you can't get to the end of a grand prix or the end of a race without having to change cars.

"

Per the Guardian, Jenson Button also weighed in. Asked about Branson's comments, he said:

"

I disagree with him completely. Formula E is a good addition to motorsport because that will be the electric series and the rest of us can get on with motor racing.

I’ve watched a couple of races. The cars [and] the sound don’t do anything for me, but the drivers do. The drivers are making that series.

"

Formula E is a single-seater series that uses electric cars and races on street circuits around the world. Beijing, Miami, Long Beach, Moscow and London were among the hosts in 2015 as Nelson Piquet Jr. became the first-ever champion, pipping Sebastien Buemi by a single point.

It works as a spectacle, but what Horner said is right—the cars are slow, with the series website reporting a top speed of just 140 miles per hour. Furthermore, most of the circuits are so dismally uninspiring they make even Hermann Tilke's worst tracks look like supreme masterpieces.

In its current form, FE could never be a rival to F1.

But as the electric technology progresses, the cars get faster, the series becomes more attractive to top drivers and the circuits get more interesting, it could at least provide some welcome competition.

Honda Bullish About 2nd Half of the Season

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Honda have revealed they expect to make a breakthrough in their power-unit development after the summer break.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, Honda motorsport chief Yasuhisa Arai said:

"

We have seven tokens still remaining, so we will apply those in the second half of the season after the summer shutdown. We will replace many parts to improve the horsepower, so we have good harvest and good systems. And I think we can catch up this season.

That is the target and already we have shared that with our team. The two drivers know our plan and they trust us.

"

Arai went further, revealing which areas the manufacturer, along with partner McLaren, will be targeting:

"

Combustion is very important to get the horsepower. So changing the combustion chamber design, the valve timing and everything for better combustion.

It is mainly in the ICE [internal combustion engine], but some areas like the MGU-K and MGU-H, including the turbocharger, are other areas we need to work on to get more horsepower.

"

Per the table in Appendix 4 of the 2015 Technical Regulations, the combustion-chamber changes Arai spoke of, including the valve timing, would cost three tokens.

A new MGU-H and MGU-K (just the units themselves) would cost two tokens each (changing everything involved with the unit's running would cost five each), while alterations to the turbocharger would cost various amounts depending on what is changed.

With seven tokens, Honda can't change everything they need to—but having identified the main issues, they should be able to at least reduce the performance gap to the leading manufacturers if they get the upgrades right.

Given what we've seen this year, it's far from guaranteed they'll do that.