F1 Racing Conundrum

Vettel takes back the championship lead in World’s Driver Championship(WDC) by 1 point after his flawless drive at the Canadian Grand Prix. This F1 season has been one of the most unpredictable in terms of which driver would win the next race. Let’s look at the last three races for example; Hamilton had a dominant victory in Spain, Riccardo braved and triumphed over the loss of power in his PU and won Monaco and Vettel won the race without any real challenge against him in Canada. After the completion of seven races in 2018 season, these top 3 drivers in WDC stands as follows: Hamilton has won 2, Riccardo 2 and Vettel 3. The constructor's championship has been the closest it has ever been(considering the top 3 teams) after the completion of seven races in this hybrid power unit era. Even after this fans in F1 have started calling these races boring especially the last three.

They have been asking for changes to be brought into F1 to improve the spectacle. Any improvement in bringing the competition closer has lots of challenges in F1. Manufacturers oppose it with the view of costs and also on the grounds that standardised parts reduce differentiation among different manufacturers, new fans get confused with constant regulation changes etc. But even then the following changes have been mooted to improve the spectacle.

1. Make the cars narrow again.

Fans never liked the narrow cars and these cars never won brownie points on account of their looks. Most drivers said it was the ugliest looking F1 cars when these were launched in 2009. However following these cars were much easier and this period from 2009-13 had the highest overtakes since the early 2000's. However, fans just remember Vettel winning 3 championship in a row from 2010-14. What most people forgot is the Vettel-Red Bull combination was not nearly as dominant as the Mercedes from 2014-17. We had Alonso almost winning the championship twice in Ferrari and would have won apart from a strategy call from the team. More to the point the 2012 season had seven winners in first seven races. However, it was the fans who voted for more aggressive looking cars for 2017 season onward and the current cars are the result of that.

2. Get re-fueling back

All these solutions by fans are really perplexing. Re-fueling created an unnecessary hazard and statistics wise there were more overtaking after stopping re-fueling during the races. Also, this would involve more strategy calls which may lead to more overtaking in the pits itself which were a major point of debate in the refueling era.

3. Change the aero-regulations again to allow cars to follow.

F1 Winter Testing In Barcelona - Day Two — F1 Winter Testing In Barcelona, 2018

This is a suggestion which Ross Brawn is undertaking and studying for the 2021 regulation shake-up. Also, certain regulations are in line for 2019 season which may help improve the spectacle. However, we can be sure that these changes would send the mid-level teams farther behind. Every major change in aerodynamics philosophy cost more money and these would hamper the Force Indias, Williams, etc. Moreover, with regulations definitely changing in 2021, the mid-level teams will be at an even bigger cash crunch than ever before

4. Make the tyres more durable so that there will be no tyre management.

If tyres are more durable, then one stop is a guarantee which is anyway the existing formula. The only thing this would achieve is the front-runners able to push more and expect the current top 3 teams to lap every other team consistently in every race.

Canadian F1 Grand Prix - Previews — Canadian F1 Grand Prix

So what then could be the solution to the current crisis according to expert fans? The fans want the teams closer, the fans want racing and the fans want excitement. A possible solution could be ensuring that every team starts on a full tank with 105 KG. This could ensure that teams do not drive under the limit and limit the situations which Bottas found himself on the last lap in Canada.

But what the fans forget has been that since the hybrid era, the top three teams are closer than ever before. And once development from the top teams starts providing diminishing performance it will be all down to the drivers to conjure up magic. Yes, this aerodynamic formula has to change, but be assured that with every such change the big spending teams will get a jump on the smaller teams. Hence FIA has to ensure that most of the regulations stay stable at least for 5 years without which the smaller teams will never be able to catch up. Of course, another way would be restricting the budgets but the way for this needs to be worked out by Liberty Media and FIA taking into account all the teams. What fans need would be to be a little patient and stop reminiscing about the few great battles of the bygone era. The only true change which has occurred is reliability which has superseded expectations in the current era thereby limiting the smaller teams in winning and getting an unexpected result. We have had some fantastic and unexpected results so far and one of the closest drivers and constructors championship since 2014. Let’s enjoy this season and see which way the tide turns and hope for better races for rest of 2018.

Edited by Moderator -PJ