Ross Brawn on Overtaking
 

Was reading the official F1 site earlier today and stumbled across this from Ross Brawn.

I think we’ve got to be careful not to go too far. Formula One has a spirit, has a character, has a DNA that we don’t want to spoil. I find basketball a little bit difficult to follow when they’re scoring 90 points and football with one or two goals is exciting – for me. I think motor racing, with one or two great overtaking manoeuvres per race, is what we want. Can't say I agree with his opinion. I want to see much more than one or two overtaking manoeuvres in a race. Thoughts?

To be completely honest I find it a bit discouraging to hear something like this from someone with such a big influence on the direction of the sport.

Yeah... I agree with Brawn... Let's just have a quali and end it at that, or better yet, let's have F1 Drag races! Makes racing much more exciting, don't it?

He did say 'great' overtaking moves. Not every pass is great.

It's hard to imagine a situation in F1 where there could be enough overtakes to compare it to points scoring in basketball. Unless of course they decide to race on an oval with a Hanford-wing type device.

I agree with Ross completely.

Each to their own I guess. I'd rather see much more overtaking amongst the front of the field. As much as I'm enjoying the current Webber purple run, it hasn't been the most exciting racing.

A lot of people on this forum were raving about how good this year had been after the first few races. Why? Because there was so much overtaking caused by the wet weather.

The basketball analogy is good, the most pointless races I ever saw were the Handford device CART parades at Michigan. However, I don't think F1's current catenaccio if is great, either. We'd need something in the middle. Hockey, anyone?

There's destruction derby for hockey equivalent.

I fully agree with Brawn, F1 has to stick to it's 'DNA' not trying to become another pointless overtaking show.

It depends whether you're talking about purely making overtaking more possible or somehow artificially creating lots of overtaking.

For example, it doesn't matter whether overtaking is easier if the quickest car qualifies on pole and then drives away from the field - that's just motor racing.

On the other hand - when a car can be catching another by nearly 2 seconds a lap and then hit the 'brick wall' of the dirty air and make no more progress - that's something that needs addressing in my opinion.

I concur.

What I would also like to see is a system which removes the safety car from races. It only artificially bunches the field back up and allows drivers to end up in positions they don't deserve, and inevitably causes more accidents due to close proximity of the vehicles.

Safety car periods breed safety car periods.

Excellent point. The solution is simple: Every car should have a wind tunnel test where it's illegal to dirty the following air by more than a certain limit (which would be defined as a percentage of lost downforce).

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Spot On

Agreed with that http://www.motorsportforums.com/imag...lies/smile.gif

I also agree with Ross brawn that we dont want it to easy as right now it does make very move so much more exciting when it comes off.

I agree for the most part. I don't want a situation that creates artificial passing (if some of you think that's what the Handford Device did in CART, that's not quite accurate). However, the way it is in F1 now, there's hardly any suspense to it (though that was not the case in Turkey, much to my pleasant surprise), it's like whoever gets pole will probably win and any passing is mostly done in the pits.

Well, that is the pits.

I want to see competition on the racetrack, battles for positions, not forgone conclusions. F1 is supposed to be the cream of the crop, and no, it's not supposed to be easy.

It's not supposed to be predictable, either.

Yes, but don't you think that most of the time we see a safety car, it probably needs to be out there? I mean, compared to American motorsports, I think F1 does a very good job of deploying the safety car only when absolutely necessary. In NASCAR they throw a yellow (and even have "competition" yellows) for unseen debris and hotdog wrappers on the track. The IRL throws a full course yellow and deploys a pace car, where F1 would have a local yellow, because they're apparently too broke to hire cranes to snag & bag wrecked cars off line.

Since I'd put emphasis on the "great" in Brawn's response, I'd have to agree with him. One or two great passes are memorable. Twenty or thirty meaningless, drafting passes are not.

Just my 2 cents...

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perfectly summed up.

Overtaking should come naturally within the races structure. If there is a lack of overtaking, it is very important to pinpoint the definite area where the problem lies. It's very clear that the difficulty with closing a gap in dirty air poses the biggest threat to overtaking, or even creating an overtaking opportunity for yourself. But making new regulations, dicing around current ones, without actually focusing on the biggest hindrance, just wastes time, money and confuses/irritates fans, drivers and team personnel. That said, the dirty air flaw doesn't seem to be as bad as it was in the past.

However, taking that out of the equation, I don't believe that there is any other serious flaws regarding overtaking in the sport currently. And this year, I must say, I've enjoyed the increase in on-track racing which I don't for one minute put down to some wet or damp conditions we have experienced. We have had some absolutely stupid moves by a number of drivers this season and, while this could be argued to be careless driving as opposed to skilled or professional, it is creating more spectacle and entertainment.

Interesting point about the safety car too. I, for one, hate the field being bunched up. Safety is a very important element of the sport, of course. But, remembering that up to the early 1990s some cars were even left road-side for the remaining race distance after retiring, how essential are the safety car periods we have endured in recent years? If a car stops on track, but off the racing line, then the only threat that it really poses is to another which is badly off the racing line, with the possibility of hitting the stricken car. I think that leaving cars abandoned road-side (perhaps only in slow areas of the course and when enough racing line is left) creates interesting changes to the approach of lapping the track during a race. Though that idea is quite far-fetched in many respects I know, I think it could be done safely and improve the races structure since there would be no safety car to deal with. Though, obviously, in cases where the racing line and driver safety is at risk, I do agree that the safety car is a welcome addition to the race.

Well said http://www.motorsportforums.com/images/styles/World/icons/icon14.gif

Hey I have an idea....lets invert the field. The pole sitter starts p24, and last place on the pole! That would surely increase passing, LOLhttp://www.motorsportforums.com/imag...es/biggrin.gif http://www.motorsportforums.com/imag...ies/tongue.gif http://www.motorsportforums.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

All we need is one team to figure out a way to run well in another car's "dirty air" and you'll hear the biggest outcry of cheating on this forum - until everyone else copies it, of course.