Former Pirelli boss calls for 1500bhp so drivers are "kings"

Pirelli's former F1 boss Paul Hembery has called for the championship to consider 1500bhp cars, so its drivers could be "kings" again.

Hembery was in charge at the tyre company when they were appointed as F1's official tyre sponsor again in 2011. However, he made the switch to LatAm operations in 2017, to take up a new role as CEO of the organisation.

The 52-year-old recently went his seperate ways with the tyre company after more than half-a-century of service, but he still has an opinion on the direction Formula 1 should go in.

"What really needs to happen is that the drivers need to become kings of the sport," Hembery told Autosport. "They need to become the superstars because people today are very much personality focused.

"We often talk about exciting racing when there has been rain or safety car with 10 laps to go and that is a message. We need unpredictability, or the concentration of vehicles when there is a safety car allowing people to race flat out. That is where the work needs to be."

Questionned what his plan for F1 would be if he started from scracth, the former Pirelli boss replied: "It would be simplified in the sense that power is relatively cheap to get and provides a greater challenge for drivers. So why not have 1500bhp engines?

"That may not equate to what the car manufacturers might want in their desire to sell or market technology, but horse racing is still popular despite the arrival of the car."