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The Manipe F1 Blog
Tue, 16 March, 2010Is this F1's worst crisis?
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Given the unjustified outcry by fans, journalists, teams and even drivers at the lack of overtaking in Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix, it's surprising that it has not yet been branded F1's worst crisis. Perhaps the fact that it comes hot on the heels of crashgate, spygate and many more gates besides, the F1 fraternity are become much-accustomed to the strange fortunes of our beloved sport. But is the lack of overtaking in Bahrain really as much of a crisis as those inside and outside F1 are making out to be? While being far from the sport's worst crisis, it is simply a result of the core values of Formula One and the current set of regulations that overtaking is being made so difficult in the modern era. The ongoing push for ever-increasing downforce levels by the sport's engineers has rendered it nearly impossible for cars to follow each other closely in corners due to the turbulent air, therefore making overtaking nearly impossible on the straights. Neither changing the refuelling ban, introducing mandatory pitstops nor altering tyre performance are going to make huge strides towards rectifying the issue. Instead Formula One needs to take another serious look at car design. But as the 2008-2009 regulations overhaul showed, no matter how much the regulations intend to cut downforce and therefore increase the chance of overtaking, engineers will always find a way back and create downforce where downforce simply didn't exist the year previous. It may therefore be wise to re-examine the idea of introducing a downforce limit on cars, which could in turn offer engineers more freedom in the way they create downforce. The idea was first mooted by then FIA president Max Mosley in 2005, but was abandoned in favour of the car design changes introduced last year. Now though, with downforce levels as high as they have ever been, F1 needs to find alternative means of reducing grip. A downforce limit would do this, and also continue to encourage engineering innovation, something which will always be needed to keep Formula One as the pinnacle of motorsport. In the meantime, perhaps the F1 fraternity should reduce the volume and sit out the forthcoming races in Australia, Malaysia and China before consigning the current season of F1 to the scrapheap. With no KERS, this year's races were always going to be duller than 2009, but the championship battle between the sport's big 4 should be just as thrilling to watch. |  | ||
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