Caesium137
Well-known member
Things that stop 'good racing' or overtakes are varied, the cars are far too big and heavy, most of the circuits are too narrow or lack good overtaking spots because of their design, the cars are too reliable and driven within themselves these days. The tyre rules don't help as the pit lane speed limits and having to use the two compounds makes most of the races suit a single strategy more than anything else.
Of course the main issue, and the elephant in the room that doesn't get mentioned too much is that it makes sense there is little overtaking. The race order is set with the fastest car at the front, as decided by the qualifying session. If the car in front of you can lap a little bit faster, it makes sense that if everything else is pretty equal in the race there isn't a huge chance of closing up and passing them.
This is now also massively hampered by the fact that the aero is so important, the cars are huge, many of the tracks are street circuits and there is almost no point/benefit/opportunity to go for a more aggressive tyre strategy as you are limited on what you can change.
I think fundamentally the cars and tracks need to change. Failing that change the tyre rules and maybe look at altering pit entry / exit so as much time isn't lost for pitstops, or stop allowing pitting under safety car / VSC maybe.
Weather and the odd jumbled up grid make for better races as a rule, but I'm against any artificial fiddling such as reverse or random grids (I hate the sprint race format too).
Possibly reduce to one set-up & practice session and make Qually a one shot lap with no other cars on track, maybe drawing run order out of a hat or something so it is random to account for differences in track evolution.
It would put a lot of pressure on the drivers to either deliver a stonking lap and risk it all or go for a steady banker lap and hope for the best.
But artificially hindering the leader, nah, not for me. It's just artificial boIIocks. I'd maybe loosen the design rules a little and just let them race.
Of course the main issue, and the elephant in the room that doesn't get mentioned too much is that it makes sense there is little overtaking. The race order is set with the fastest car at the front, as decided by the qualifying session. If the car in front of you can lap a little bit faster, it makes sense that if everything else is pretty equal in the race there isn't a huge chance of closing up and passing them.
This is now also massively hampered by the fact that the aero is so important, the cars are huge, many of the tracks are street circuits and there is almost no point/benefit/opportunity to go for a more aggressive tyre strategy as you are limited on what you can change.
I think fundamentally the cars and tracks need to change. Failing that change the tyre rules and maybe look at altering pit entry / exit so as much time isn't lost for pitstops, or stop allowing pitting under safety car / VSC maybe.
Weather and the odd jumbled up grid make for better races as a rule, but I'm against any artificial fiddling such as reverse or random grids (I hate the sprint race format too).
Possibly reduce to one set-up & practice session and make Qually a one shot lap with no other cars on track, maybe drawing run order out of a hat or something so it is random to account for differences in track evolution.
It would put a lot of pressure on the drivers to either deliver a stonking lap and risk it all or go for a steady banker lap and hope for the best.
But artificially hindering the leader, nah, not for me. It's just artificial boIIocks. I'd maybe loosen the design rules a little and just let them race.
