\n\u201cNone of the facts in the last 30 years support the theory that grippy tyres and low downforce promote overtaking. If reducing downforce was the answer, then 1983 would have shown it, since we lost 80% of the aero efficiency in the 1983 rules, \u201d he says. \u201cBut there was no more overtaking than in 1982.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere\u2019s the proof \u2013 if downforce prevented overtaking, historically the races with the fewest overtaking manoeuvres would have been the wet races, where maximum downforce settings are used\u2026 Why anybody still thinks a reduction in downforce is the solution when faced with the facts has been a consistent mystery and frustration to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo much difference in grip between on and off line is a major factor, caused by sticky tyres (lots of mechanical grip)<\/p>\n
\u201cBraking distances into slow corners are far too short, caused by sticky tyres (too much mechanical grip).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other reason why it is hard to overtake in current F1 is that the fastest cars are at the front with slower ones behind, so there is no reason to expect overtaking unless a driver makes a mistake.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this case overtaking will only ever happen following mistakes, which are rare nowadays with super sticky tyres, big runoff areas and semi automatic gearboxes.<\/p>\n
\u201cA few things have worked in the past.<\/p>\n
\u2013 One set of tyre for the race worked, but Michelin\u2019s tyres were much more suited to this than Bridgestone, so it was changed since Bridgestone were to become the only supplier.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Single lap qualifying. Often fast cars qualified out of pace order, making overtaking likely. It was unpopular since it was \u201cnot fair\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen there was overtaking in the past it was mainly due to the low grip of the tyres leaving a wide racing line and long braking distances combined with cars much more difficult to drive due to low grip and manual gearboxes, hence more mistakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will never fix it whilst so many people ignore the facts and fixate on long held views which are completely at variance with the data.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is that quite a few influential people, like drivers and ex-drivers in the media, do not want the changes which certainly worked in the past. The drivers hate hard tyres, despite them probably being 50% solution, and the engineers love semi-automatic gearboxes, the other 50%\u2026<\/p>\n
Most overtakes took place in the past when a driver made a mistake due to poor grip or missed a gear.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
It may not be a popular point of view, but you only have to look at todays Grand Prix \u2013 a very good race by the way! – to see that all the interest has come from either mistakes by the drivers or from peoples tyres giving different levels of performance through the race and changing weather.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whilst I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a single fix, the tracks themselves have a good part to play as well for example, I can\u2019t see why the pundits have this fascination with aerodynamics being such a huge problem.\u00a0 As Frank says, there doesn\u2019t seem to be any evidence to support it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With all the talk about the F1 show being diminshed by dull races, are aerodynamics really the cause as the pundits suggest? Could ist be the tyres and semi-automatic gearboxes?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[256,525,68,257,378],"class_list":["post-648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cars","tag-aerodynamics","tag-cars","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-tyres","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":649,"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions\/649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}