Despite a growing acceptance overtaking is becoming more difficult in Formula 1 again, teams insist the last rules change intended to aid passing worked as intended.
Two years since F1 overhauled its regulations to encourage more passing, drivers have complained the ‘dirty air’ problem which prevents them from racing closely is getting worse again.However Williams team principal James Vowles strongly believes the rules have changed F1 for the better.
“I don’t think the regulations have failed,” he said. “I think that would be wholeheartedly unfair.
“The competition is pretty tight in the midfield. There is overtaking that takes place. I think even on the data that we can see now, it’s still better than the ‘21, ‘20 generations of cars.”
However he accepts cars have become harder to follow again as teams have refined their designs over the past two seasons. “Undoubtedly, especially the leading pack have developed the car in an extraordinary way that as you develop downforce, is making it harder to follow.
But I still think on all the metrics and all the data we can see, you’re now getting closer than you were before as a result of things, which was an intention behind it.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
He does not expect to see any improvement until F1’s next generation of chassis rules arrives in 2026.
“Whether they will improve in ’25, no, I don’t think so. There’s no reason to think it will improve next year.
“In ‘26 the rules are still being ratified as we speak, so it’s hard to evaluate that.”
Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack also believes the quality of racing has been better under the post-2022 regulations.
“I think the regulations are not a fail, at all. It has allowed various designs from the beginning, then obviously a dominance that none of us want, but that’s a fact.
“All in all, I think we have one more year to go, and then we welcome the new ones. As James said, they’re not 100% fixed yet, and we look forward to them.
“But honestly, I think the current regulations are well done and well made, and we have had great racing behind one team.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
- Vowles being patient with Sargeant but expects to see “progress”
- “So I’ve got nothing to worry about?” – The best unheard team radio from Jeddah
- “Shock” of poor start to season showed need for change at Alpine – Famin
- “My tyres are dying”: Stroll’s short-lived struggle until he hit the wall
- Bearman calls Ferrari debut a “dream” but admits “I made a lot of mistakes”
Erzen (@xenn1)
13th March 2024, 7:36
It boggles my mind that some people think that this isn’t normal. An inherent feature of adding more downforce to a racecar is that it will change the dirty air profile behind it in a matter that it will make it more difficult to be followed by another car. Underbody downforce is not as bad in this regard as let’s say a rear wing, but it still has this effect. So as the regulations mature and the teams add more downforce to their cars, we are bound to go down this path again. At least the current gen cars were made with close racing in mind, unlike the crazy wide and fast 2017 cars where wheel to wheel racing was not even in the list of priorities.
I believe that the best way to make cars race each other more easily is to decrease their size and weight. I’ve read that the 2026 regulations have listed both of those as priorities, so i think we’re in the right path in that regard. I just hope we don’t get a repeat of the 2014 aesthetics
Jere (@jerejj)
13th March 2024, 7:48
Downforce amount itself isn’t necessarily the issue, but how it’s generated, i.e., some outwash-inducing features with the current-generation GE cars.
Yes, weight & dimension reductions are indeed among the priorities for the 2026 technical regulation overhaul, albeit aero designs are still a more critical factor for racing quality than mass & size, as the distant past shows.
S
13th March 2024, 8:15
Downforce is the issue, @jerejj. No matter how or where on the car it is made, it will always negatively affect the following car. The more of it a car produces, the worse the effect on the follower.
Perhaps you’ve noticed that aircraft aren’t allowed to follow each other too closely? Same air, same laws of physics, same aerodynamic principles – just upside-down.
The excessive size of the cars just amplifies the problem – a larger car displaces and disturbs (and can work) more air, in addition to the other problem of the actual physical space it takes up on the track.
Jeanrien (@jeanrien)
13th March 2024, 8:22
It seems people forget where we are coming from. Before ground effect, cars could only follow each other’s for a few laps before dropping back a few sec to protect the tyres and eventually try again later.
At least the new regulations allow cars to follow closely for longer periods of time, allowing one car to push the one in front to a mistake and taking advantage of a mistake.
Overtaking shouldn’t be easy otherwise every race results will be according to car performance only, but car design should allow for close racing and making it possible to get close enough to overtake. It has been successful on that point and is a clear improvement from previous regulations.
That said, smaller cars for 2026 would also be appreciated.
BasCB (@bascb)
13th March 2024, 12:31
Good point there @jeanrien. We’ve seen in both races so far this year that while it might not be easy to pass, cars CAN follow others close for tens of laps in a row, to try to pass and try to push their competitors into mistakes making for more chance of actual racing.
Nick T.
14th March 2024, 1:21
It boggles my mind people don’t see or remember the difference of why besides one season during the Vettel and Schumacher eras, there were was actually great racing. 2014-2016 were also filled with many amazing races. That’s why the intolerance didn’t grow as quickly as it has now for Max’s dominance. Then when Bottas made things extremely boring, we quickly had the RBR rise keeping things interesting.
These obese cars, their reliability and ironically, the closeness of so many cars and most of all too much sim data putting everyone on the same strategy, has made this new era a disaster.
Jere (@jerejj)
13th March 2024, 7:45
Unfortunately, as long as engineers aren’t overly restricted with how they design car aero, following will inevitably become harder through stable technical regulation cycle, but fortunately, following is still easier than in 2017-21, especially.
S
13th March 2024, 8:02
The idea of these rules hasn’t failed completely, perhaps – but the goal of those rules simply wasn’t long-term enough.
A very familiar concept in F1….
Just imagine how much better F1’s complete on-track product would be with half of the downforce. We can only imagine, of course, because F1 will never break their unhealthy addiction to it. They just don’t want to change for the better.
Tristan
13th March 2024, 8:30
Okay, sure, they haven’t failed when viewed at as a whole… The part of the new regulations intended to close the wild gaps are having some impact, that is; the limited CFD, budget cap, the “more like a spec series” that everyone complains about with standard, transferable and open parts.
But specifically the part that was supposed to impact the overtaking, the result of the overtaking working group, even the stop-gap which was DRS, are not at all working as intended. There seems to be a mix of reasons, dirty air, increased lethargy of the cars due to weight, improved defensive energy management by the teams.
I find it a bit disingenuous by Vowles here to conflate the two issues. Sure it’s just the start of the season and we’ll see how things go, but the first two races have been boring as bat guano, to be frank. For a series that is selling itself on its entertainment factor, we shouldn’t be seeking whatsapp messages to find that.
Tristan
13th March 2024, 8:39
We’ll see how things go also, as time progresses, but everyone involved in F1 is never saying anything at all that could be construed as negative, even constructively. It’s one thing to not have Ecclestone saying it’s all going to fail because of this or that, but from a complete outsiders perspective, not seeing any admission by anyone at all that things could be better makes me think they’re all either not as bright as they claim to be, drinking the kool-aid, or are literally being silenced by their contracts.
A stale product that nobody wants to improve is a hell of a lot worse than a stale product that is working hard to be better. There are a lot of competing shows out there for our eye-balls, and when the straws start stacking up (boring on-track, supporting sexual harassment, complete domination, playground for billionaire’s kids, incompetent rules application), one is bound to break the camels back.
S
13th March 2024, 9:15
All three.
Steve Mepham
13th March 2024, 9:51
Absolutely.
Close racing is much more exciting than DRS overtakes, it’s that close following ability that leads to wheel to wheel, that may result in an overtake, a mistake, or a failure to get past.
Pete
13th March 2024, 10:58
I’d say they’ve failed personally but it depends what their goal was. They’ve taken something that was a 2/10 and turned it into a 4/10. If their goal was simply to improve the situation then sure, they’ve succeeded. If their goal was to create something good, they’ve failed spectacularly.
We’ve still got cars that are unable to race without gimmicks. However you try and dress it up and pretend that a few DRS passes for 13th place means the racing is better than it was previously, you’ve still got a pretty bad situation.
MichaelN
13th March 2024, 11:21
No, that’s such a watered down statement. Almost deceptively so.
On the eve of the 2022 season, Ross Brawn, who oversaw these cars on behalf of Liberty, said that we’d see former midfield teams challenging for wins. Instead, we don’t even have former top teams challenging for wins…
There is zero competition for the places that matter. And that’s not my take, that’s Liberty’s view: they have stated in writing that teams that are not competitive for podiums and wins do not belong in F1.
Vowles and Albon can dress up their struggle for 15th place however they want, but this is not what Liberty promised when they got a huge hand in shaping this generation of cars.
sam
13th March 2024, 15:46
Comment of the day here.