Circuits, not cars, need to change to improve overtaking

[Enja]

How does this stance tally with the fact that other series using the same circuits (including GP2) are able to overtake?

Good points made by the article and I agree changes need to be made.

First of all though, I've heard that post 2008, GP2 has suffered in terms of racing because the rules were changed and in came a more aero-dependent car, compared to the 05/06/07 models. There was a great 10 minute piece of TV from 2006 with Nelson Piquet, Lewis Hamilton and Timo Glock fighting it out at Turkey, diving up the inside of one another all the time, dicing and moving around, it was sublime to watch, and has presumably been taken down by some faceless corporation getting paranoid about it's rights, despite promotion of the thing itself

As a result of ITV4 losing the GP2 rights I can't vouch for what's changed, post 2008, but that's what I've heard.

Another, and often overlooked, part of the overtaking "problem" is that the TV coverage is still not up to scratch in my opinion. I've been meaning to write a topic about this issue with numerous examples, and I will get round to it this week.

At Brazil 2009, for example, there were roughly 25 overtakes during the race, yet I think the TV feed saw about 15 of those, maybe even less. There were a fair few overtakes missed, as far as I understand it. This goes no way to helping the perception you can't overtake in F1, if you don't ever show the overtakes that do actually happen. [On a side note, I was surprised to see the 2008 Fuji numbers, very respectable for a high downforce circuit! And yet, I don't remember 24 overtakes!]

The TV coverage and learning how to spot a possible overtake is an important piece of the jigsaw with regards to overtaking and the perception surrounding it. At some circuits, yes, there is literally no overtaking to speak of, and something serious needs to be done about those circuits, yet the coverage should show the overtakes when they do occur.

I'm also concerned about the last line of that article, 'nothing is likely to be changed for next year'.. Well then FIA, FOTA, FOM, when do you want to do something about it?

 

[LifeW12]

Make the qualifying wet and all the fast people down the back and then a spinkle of rain at the start of the race.

Valencia is not a circuit they should be racing on if overtaking is impossible (4 moves in 2 years). They need to be racing at Algarve but they might not pass there even if every other series can.

Its the cars about 80% to blame and also 20% is the overtaking places on tracks spaced to close. Abu Dhabi for example has the two long straights with good passing places at the end and the other 60% of the track is follow the leader.