Poll results: Push-to-pass

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Most F1 fans would like to see the quality of racing improve. But how far should the governing body go in trying to make the sport better?

Other series like A1 Grand Prix use ‘push to pass’ systems to give drivers a brief boost of power to let them overtake an opponent. Is this too much of a gimmick for Formula 1?

Here’s what you said:

Should F1 have push-to-pass?

Those of you who didn’t like the idea of ‘push-to-pass’ outnumbered those of you who approved of it by more than two-to-one. The lesson is better racing good, artificial racing bad.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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10 comments on “Poll results: Push-to-pass”

  1. The maths here in the summary of the results is wrong. Read the question and think about the summary again. The people wanting push to pass are more than people not.

  2. No, actually what I did was forgot to include the original question! Fixed it now, cheers.

  3. The only other series where I’ve seen push-to-pass seem to favour defenders over attackers. So I’m not even convinced it would improve the racing, artificially or otherwise.

  4. Overtaking and stopping an opposing driver passing by legitimate means are fundamental driving skills. There is no way push to pass should ever be used as a driver aid.

    Imagine Gilles Villeneuve at Jarama in 1981 keeping 4 faster cars behind him for the whole race because he drove a perfect line and never left a single gap. And none of the ludicrous one move rubbish. That drive 27 years later has gone down in legend. Imagine that if you knew that at the start of the straight on every lap he was maintaining position by pressing a button. Not exactly legendary.

    Everyone knows that the technical regulations are the problem. Until Max or his replacement(can we dare think such a thing?) get rid of front wings overtaking will be ludicrously difficult. A child of ten could draw up a set of rules for high drag cars with no downforce being generated in front of the front wheels and which generates a wake that isn’t massively turbulent. That is all it takes to give us back racing.

  5. now let’s hope Max is reading :-)

  6. I like all of your ideas Mr. Roy. While your aerodynamic concepts are easy to install, the powers that be will unfortunetly not listen to ideas such as this that would greatly improve the appeal of the sport.

  7. When Max introduced grooved tyres it was supposedly to help overtaking. When he was asked in an interview why he didn’t do something about the front wing when everyone knew that was the problem he came up with some nonsense about the wake from the grooves making the front wing less efficient. He was asked if this proved not to be the case would he reduce the size of the wings. For once he was quoted as giving a one word answer. “Yes”.

    There is a famous poker player who is known for convoluted reasons as the Devilfish. He has a reputation as a great bluffer and seems to be able to acquire chips regardless of his cards. On a recent TV show the commentator mentioned that the Deveilfish was lying. When asked by the co-host how he knew the first commentator replied that he could see his lips moving. Well when Max said he would do something about the front wing I am sure his lips were moving. (That should keep Keith’s lawyers happy) JYS would have been proud of that.

    The real problem is that sponsors like wings. They are a great place to advertise. Max has in the past said that one of the difficulties in getting rid of wings is the loss of area to advertise on. To me there are two obvious solutions. Either insist that ever car has a tea tray wing as used by Max’s own company March in 1971. I never understood what that wing was meant to do apart from advertise STP. I suppose it could have been a flow conditioner for the top of the car or it could have been some kind of high speed anti-roll or even an anti-dive device. If anyone knows please tell me because it has bugged me for a very long time.

    The other option is to use a vertical or near vertical front wing. This would create drag but no downforce meaning the following car could slip stream and overtake. I suppose you could re-introduce air dams as used on the Jackie Stewart Tyrrells. There you get a huge area for sponsors and low sensitivity to turbulence.

    What’s stopping you Max?

  8. They did actually use a mandatory vertical wing element in CART for a while in the late nineties – the Handford device. As with your idea it was intended to create drag and keep speeds down. I think the guy who came up with it worked for the Jaguar F1 team in the early 2000s.

    You’re right about Mosley changing his tune on grooves now.

  9. I forgot about the Handford device. I am sure you are right in saying he used to work for Jaguar. I think he was called Mick Handford.

  10. theRoswellite
    5th March 2008, 23:50

    Can I stand in line to applaud Mr. Roy’s comments? 
    This is a drum I’ve been beating for decades.  Congratulations again Steven.  Very well put!

    On wings…    You could at least start by having them  remain relatively the same in dimension, but generate little or no downforce (as mentioned above).  However, I think keeping them….ONLY…..because they are billboards, is the tail wagging the dog.  Please tell me we can’t find some other way to accomplish the "required" commercialization.

    I think there is another problem.

    If down force is removed in F1, the cars may be able to race more competitively (as cars…not aircraft), but their cornering speeds, thus overall speeds, will be reduced.  This would result in the cars from some other series being "faster".   I believe this is what the FIA and many people in F1 want to avoid.

    Oh, on the push to pass question…………goofy.  Especially when everyone has it, and can thus block a pass by using it at the required time.  Let the driver be the resource for any passing.

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