F1 drivers not good enough to handle low-downforce rules?

UPDATE More proof F1 drivers may be inferior. Felipe Massa believes the ban on traction control might improve the spectacle of racing, but will also cause more crashes to happen. According to the Brazilian it is now much harder to keep the car under control coming out of slow corners.

Speaking about his day of testing without the use of traction control Massa told GPUpdate.net: "It's a big difference, good fun and a better show for the fans. I do expect more crashes though. Some might expect it will cause more overtaking maneuvers but I can't agree with them. It is more dangerous as we lose some grip, especially with slicks. The car is really tricky coming out of the corner and thus it is more difficult to have a good exit out of the corner. You can easily lose the rear end of the car now so you need to be a lot smoother on the throttle."

12/06/07 Nick Heidfeld scared himself Wednesday's test at Jerez after having tested slicks and a 2009-spec aero package in his BMW and revealed that F1 drivers may not be as good as one thought – only able to drive a high-downforce ride-on-rails car. The 2009 rules cut downforce by half, and with slicks that are not up to temperature Heidfeld has warned of serious dangers.

"If it will stay like this and the tires will stay like this, it will be extremely dangerous in 2009," he warned. "On my outlap I even thought about coming back in, because there were so many drivers flying past me. You feel like you're standing still compared to the others and it's very easy to spin the car. It's very, very dangerous."

"Bridgestone could turn this around by making better tires, but the question is: does it make sense for them?" Heidfeld said. "If there's another tire supplier and there is competition, it would be solved. If the tires become softer, it will help a lot. But I'm not a tire expert, maybe the mixture of the compound should change, but like this, it will be extremely dangerous. They should change the tires, or they should allow tire heaters for 2009.

"Without traction control it's even worse, but if we would run with traction control (in 2009), it would still be very, very difficult. Even if the tires are hot, you have so little grip with the new package. We have too much power and too little grip. I don't like it at all," a disappointed Heidfeld said.