Improving the Racing

Whilst I applaud any effort to increase overtaking in F1, and certainly support methods that are not artificial (i.e. I don't want to see power-to-pass or success ballast penalties), I am not totally convinced by either Gary Anderson's (Autosport 22/11/2007) or the FIA's proposals.

I defer to Gary's far superior knowledge of F1 design than my own, however my first impression of the Anderson spec F1 car was that it reminded me very much of the grid of the second half of the 1994 season. The cars of '94 had larger diffusers, lower front wings, wider and slick tyres and ineffectual air rams (due to a slot cut into the air box). There wasn't a great deal more overtaking then than there is now.

The FIA's approach is similar to Gary's but I agree with him, the idea of a driver adjusting his brake balance forward and cranking up the front wing while alongside another car into a braking area doesn't sound very successful to me. Neither does him cranking both settings down again as he tries to accelerate out of the corner.

Whilst I have reservations about Gary's approach I certainly think there is plenty of merit in them as a starting point. However I think any serious attempt at improving the racing in F1 should address the single biggest factor that has reduced overtaking - re-fuelling.

Banning re-fuelling would add several factors to a race :-

• The variability of the car's performance over 200 miles is greatly increased, rather than over 60 miles as at present
• Tyre changes can be made optional again, thus giving genuine strategy differences along the grid and placing the success of that strategy where it should be - in the hands of the driver. Softer tyres may be faster but less durable. Harder tyres, slower but might need conservative car control to succeed
• Provides a genuine end of race difference in performance between cars (hard, very used tyres, versus softer less worn tyres)
• A much more readily realisable benefit to fuel economy - leading to spin off technologies for road cars
• A driver can no longer rely on pit-stops and therefore his mental attitude to overtaking extends beyond the first corner (something that today we only see from rookies)
  

In summary - lower the front wing, remove all the chassis mounted aerodynamic devices, stick slick tyres on, but for heaven's sake get rid of re-fuelling.