Daniel Ricciardo believes Formula 1 needs to consider whether to prioritise single lap performance or better racing with car design rules.

His comments come as the fallout from a largely uneventful Australian GP continues with many criticising the lack of on-track overtakes and difficulty in following another car closely.

In fact, outside the opening lap, just five passes were made at Albert Park and, though this weekend's race in Bahrain will likely be a better barometer, it has already led to some questioning if the current cars have gone too far.

"I feel now with the wide tyres and wide cars, they already take up a lot of space on the track, it's hard to find clean air." the Red Bull driver told Autosport.

"Aerodynamically, they're very strong now. You see the sidepods of the car, there are so many bits. It looks sick, but all it means is the car behind is going to get pretty messed up.

"It's at a point now where at Barcelona, we were going fast," he emphasised. "Turn 2, 3, was full, Turn 9 was full, it's impressive, but the faster we go, the harder it's going to be to overtake and the harder it's going to be to follow closely."

Though visually they may not be as good as the current generation of cars, Ricciardo believes the 2009-2016 era of machines did strike a much better balance between speed and raceability.

"I think narrower cars were great," he said. "It's like motorbikes because they're so narrow there's always room to get past and they lap 30 seconds slower than us.

"I think it proves it's not necessarily about the lap time.

"They (the pre-2017 cars) were slow for our standards, but for a spectator, they don't know necessarily that much different," he added. "But the racing... you could follow, you could pass. As far as overtakes went, I thought 2014 was good."

Also Read:

• Verstappen slams inability to race at "worthless" Australian GP
• Hamilton demands improvements as Mercedes identify Melbourne "bug"

The man F1 has turned to for a solution is the current managing director of motorsport, Ross Brawn who is conducting research to find solutions for implementation in the coming years.

“We need to keep the aerodynamic performance at a high level, but we need to do it in a way that’s more benign and more friendly to the cars around it," he said commenting on his work to SiriusXM.

“There’s almost a force field that exists at the moment, a bubble around each car and the car attacking it can’t get near it because as soon as it gets within 1.5-2.0s of the car in front, it loses so much performance. It can’t get near."

Identifying the areas most impacted by the "force field", Brawn added: “The front wing is for sure one area that is sensitive in both respects, in terms the disturbance it creates, and then the sensitivity to the disturbance of the car in front.

“It’s not the only area. There’s all the furniture and bargeboards you see behind the front wheels that are equally as sensitive and there are areas of the rear floor and rear aerodynamics which are sensitive.”