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[EwanM]

Michael: Overtaking needs more work

By Simon Strang and Jonathan Noble Tuesday, June 23rd 2009, 13:48 GMT

Nick Heidfeld, Fernando Alonso, British GPWilliams technical director Sam Michael believes Formula 1 teams will have to do more to try and help cars overtake, judging by the lack of overtaking at last weekend's British Grand Prix.

Although a technical revamp of the aerodynamic rules was introduced this year to help make the racing more exciting, the new wings regulations and the introduction of KERS has not had such a dramatic effect.

Michael says the lessons of Silverstone - where several drivers got trapped behind slower cars, may need to be taken on board.

"Nico [Rosberg] at stages was a good 0.5s quicker than the cars in front of him, but he couldn't get past," explained Michael. "And those were cars without KERS obviously, so there is still work to do.

"It's maybe working a little bit, but we have just got to keep trying to improve it because it is not an easy problem."

Michael does not support the theory put forward by Felipe Massa that the use of double-diffusers in Formula 1 has had a role in what has happened with overtaking.

"I don't think that has got anything to do with it," he explained. "Because a slot diffuser is just a downforce-adding device so it's not really relevant. Cars are always going to have downforce because they are moving so fast through the air. Unless you run the races in a vacuum!"

Michael insists that F1 always has to play a fine balancing act, however, between making the racing better but not detracting from the sport being the most technologically advanced in the world.

"It is an issue that we have to keep trying to improve, but the fans are also here to see the fastest cars, the technology and the drivers that go with that," explained Michael. "They are not here just to see overtaking.

"All the fan studies that have been done by FIA and also FOTA show that. They want to know that they are watching the quickest cars in the world. Because if they just wanted to see overtaking, they could go down to Shennington kart track.

"You'd see a lot more overtaking down there than you ever would at a grand prix, or any autorace if you like. But there is a reason why you don't get 100,000 people watching go-kart racing, and that is because there is no technology. There is overtaking, but everything else that F1 has they don't have.

"It's a little bit why people go to Farnborough Air Show. They go there to see Migs, Tornados and things like that, because they know those are the absolute best things in the world - if they weren't after technology they would go and watch a paper airplane competition."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76487

[McLaren Fan]

Things have improved this season by quite a bit, but to seriously increase on-track action, more radical action has to be taken. For me, a lot of work has gone into the aerodynamic side of Formula One over the decades, so there's nothing truly revolutionary on the horizon. We know about aerodynamic wings, moveable aerodynamic wings, ground effect, directing air around the tyres, etc., so let's take the focus away from aerodynamics altogether. New regulations should be drawn up to increase the focus on the mechanical grip of cars, and the engine side of the sport needs to be revived, too. FOTA have hinted a little bit about the engine side of things, but I don't see the FIA backing these regulation changes.

[darwin dali]

Things have improved this season by quite a bit, but to seriously increase on-track action, more radical action has to be taken. For me, a lot of work has gone into the aerodynamic side of Formula One over the decades, so there's nothing truly revolutionary on the horizon. We know about aerodynamic wings, moveable aerodynamic wings, ground effect, directing air around the tyres, etc., so let's take the focus away from aerodynamics altogether. New regulations should be drawn up to increase the focus on the mechanical grip of cars, and the engine side of the sport needs to be revived, too. FOTA have hinted a little bit about the engine side of things, but I don't see the FIA backing these regulation changes.

Well, the aero is what causes the instability for a driver who follows another car and therefore can't really make a serious passing attempt unless the guy in front makes a mistake or is underpowered in comparison (or doesn't have KERS while the attacker does). So, fine-tuning aero regs further might well be successful in alleviating this problem and provide for more overtaking.

[7UpJordan]

These have been my sentiments for the past few races. I think the diffusers should be reduced to just a simple single deck, a single adjustable plane for each of the front and rear wings, wider cars (back to 1997 widths, like they should have done in the first place!!) and - if it can be safely implemented - ground effects.

And to increase the "pull" of the slipstream, the sidepods should be made more bulky and less streamlined.

[EwanM]

These have been my sentiments for the past few races. I think the diffusers should be reduced to just a simple single deck, a single adjustable plane for each of the front and rear wings, wider cars (back to 1997 widths, like they should have done in the first place!!) and - if it can be safely implemented - ground effects.

And to increase the "pull" of the slipstream, the sidepods should be made more bulky and less streamlined.

Again I agree with that.

Eddie Jordan would be happy. No Kers.

[f1ea]

I think there's been enough overtaking. Much more than last yr. The problems is that the cars winning are just too far ahead of everyone.

Besides, to overtake you need either a faster car or a mistake... if some cars are faster than others, then we'd have the same domination issue people always complain about. And F1 guys make few mistakes.

With a couple more race winning cars... there would be enough excitement.

[7UpJordan]

Eddie Jordan would be happy. No Kers.

Besides, to overtake you need either a faster car or a mistake... if some cars are faster than others, then we'd have the same domination issue people always complain about. And F1 guys make few mistakes.

I think the Q3 cars get spread out quickly thanks to their relative fuel loads, next year when everybody is filled to the end it'll be more even.

[EwanM]

I think there's been enough overtaking. Much more than last yr. The problems is that the cars winning are just too far ahead of everyone.

Besides, to overtake you need either a faster car or a mistake... if some cars are faster than others, then we'd have the same domination issue people always complain about. And F1 guys make few mistakes.

With a couple more race winning cars... there would be enough excitement.

This is another point, and one that Michael's picks up on well. However the problem is that even the faster cars cannot over take!

Button homed in on Rosberg at the weekend at a fast rate, only for his charge to be interupted by dirty air. No matter how much faster your car is, driver cannot get close enough to pass. I'm not for a series where passing happens every 2 seconds, but I do want to see more ontrack battles.
Granted we got alot of that at the weekend, but as shown in the case of Button and with Webber and Barrichello, the OWG's plans have allowed the cars to follow closer together, but maybe a few tenths short.

[bud]

abit rich for a member of the original double decker brigade to say overtaking needs more work

[f1ea]

Button homed in on Rosberg at the weekend at a fast rate, only for his charge to be interupted by dirty air. No matter how much faster your car is, driver cannot get close enough to pass.

And if he (Button) had been able to overtake, then there would have been very little for Rosberg and even Massa to do or to even fight for. In fact, the season would easily turn into a Brawn/Red Bull top 4. And Barrichello would have had a couple more predictable podiums despite making mistakes/having problems...

[EwanM]

Button homed in on Rosberg at the weekend at a fast rate, only for his charge to be interupted by dirty air. No matter how much faster your car is, driver cannot get close enough to pass.

And if he (Button) had been able to overtake, then there would have been very little for Rosberg and even Massa to do or to even fight for. In fact, the season would easily turn into a Brawn/Red Bull top 4. And Barrichello would have had a couple more predictable podiums despite making mistakes/having problems...

And that is the art of racing, the other drivers should be made to defend more. In the case of Button he should have been able to at least have a clear go at Rosberg. It would then have been Nico's duty to defend it.

[f1ea]

And that is the art of racing, the other drivers should be made to defend more. In the case of Button he should have been able to at least have a clear go at Rosberg. It would then have been Nico's duty to defend it.

Nico still had the pressure not to make serious mistakes. If Button could get a clean go at Nico / Massa there would have been very little to do or defend, with that pace Button had...

[Frosty]

I now think KERS needs to go due to costs and I'm not sure if does anything for overtaking. From what I gather and I may be wrong but isn't braking distance have a lot to do with overtaking when there is a longer breaking distance there is greater margin for out breaking. The breaking distance decreases with more mechanical grip right? which slicks gave so would it of been better for overtaking to stay with grooved tyres or made the slicks narrower to keep the mechanical grip lower?

[scotty]

I now think KERS needs to go due to costs and I'm not sure if does anything for overtaking. From what I gather and I may be wrong but isn't braking distance have a lot to do with overtaking when there is a longer breaking distance there is greater margin for out breaking. The breaking distance decreases with more mechanical grip right? which slicks gave so would it of been better for overtaking to stay with grooved tyres or made the slicks narrower to keep the mechanical grip lower?

I sorta agree with you... mega-powerful brakes are a large part of the problem, but no way should grooved tyres have stayed!

[cap-dude]

Higher top speeds equal great break distance. I think that ones simple enough. Less downforce, means you can't take corners as quickly, meaning you need to slow down more and brake more.

Also. Boost Button!!! F2 are actually using a system called overboost. So clearly the FIA have endorsed boosting in a way. So now, it needs to be looked at in F1. KERS was suppose to be a push to pass system, but it fails miserably. Overboost is the best way to increase overtaking, without reducing technical prowess of F1.