Quote:
Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith
A great overtake by Vettel, I remember watching it at the time. Shame there isn't more overtaking like that.
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There will be if the laps are longer. The average punter who follows F1 does not understand that racing is all about time, all he or she wants to see is faster laps because because the perception is that faster means better racing when in fact it actually means less car to car racing. If the faster lap program was carried to the 'enth degree then all the drivers would be able to do is follow the car in front because the time available to race and overtake simply does not exist, simply put you can't defy physics.
No one seems to have grasped this until recently when Ross Brawn raised the matter but go back a few years and I have raised it several times in this forum. The problem is the greater unwashed out there do not understand the problem so all the band aid solutions in the world are out forward to fix F1 when the main issue is the cars are too fast for the circuits. If faster racing is what the peasants want them circuits if made longer would make for better racing to a point. The structural problems are not being addressed such as
Braking distances are way too short
Restrict the data logging to an absolute number of channels, perhaps 20 would be a good number.
Those 20 channels to be nominated by the teams prior to the race
Remove all management from the steering wheels, the only button on it should be for a horn
Open up the regs to allow some free thinking
Reduce the distance from centre line of the front wing to the centre of the front wheels
Reduce the front to rear depth of the front wing and make it a single element.
Ban all data transmission from the pits to outside the circuit such as back to base at the factory
Restrict the actual data analysis facilities at the track, all those screens except maybe a couple should go
If they invent new technology let them run it but by restricting the management they are going to have to be very clever at managing it. I think if the braking distances are made longer then the lap times will be somewhat capped because stupid speeds into corners will not be possible unless they want to incur longer braking distances.
All this is major structural stuff that any team who is spending hundreds of millions of dollars do not want. Engineering in racing is all about risk mitigation in the end, if the teams are not allowed to reduce the risk to a minimum then they won't be investors in the sport because they do not want to "waste" all the money they are investing. For that reason alone they will resist any major structural change which is totally understandable of course.
Fans see the simple stuff but in the end it is all froth laid on top of some serious structural/engineering problems that have been allowed to develop. To make things worse fans think they see the problems but all they are seeing is the fluff and bubble and none of them can agree anyway. For instance they see the front wing and how far forward of the front axle it now is resulting in longer cars and have zero idea is why that is done and the one thing they truly don't understand is time and all its implications. When they grasp that concept their view will change but it is too easy to blame the visual aspects of the sport they can see.
My apologies for rabbiting on but the problems go very deep and they will never be addressed which annoys me.