F1: ‘Embarrassing’ Start To Series’ Brave New Era

Roger Benoit, one of the longest serving F1 correspondents in the paddock, said Tuesday's events at Jerez were "embarrassing".

"I have not experienced a start to a new test season such as that in 45 years in formula one," Benoit, who writes for the Swiss newspaper Blick, told Germany's Bild-Zeitung.

As the new hybrid and V6-powered single seaters - featuring bizarre and often rude-looking nose appendages - broke down, hit the barriers or failed even to emerge from the garages, Benoit said F1 had "pulled its pants down in front of the whole world".