Jeremy Clarkson gives an intriguing take on making F1 racing better

British TV personality Jeremy Clarkson claimed that F1 should stop racing at circuits that hinder overtaking. The sport is entering the final year of its current generation of regulations, which were first introduced in 2022 to improve overall racing and get teams closer to each other.

Although there were early signs of progress with the ground effect era of cars, as fans saw closer racing than ever before on the track, the dirty air effect was reintroduced after teams started to put more downforce on the cars.

The phenomenon once again made it harder for cars behind to follow and overtake on track due to the bad wake from the car ahead. The effect was front and center in the last two races in China and Japan when track position proved to be pivotal.

In the Japanese Grand Prix, Red Bull driver Max Verstappen was hardly challenged for the race win by the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri despite two seconds covering the three cars.

On his official social media platform, X, Jeremy Clarkson attributed the lack of racing to old-school circuits like Suzuka being outdated, saying:

"I’ve had an idea to make F1 racing more consistently exciting. Don’t use tracks where overtaking is difficult."

The race was not eventful, not just for the fans but also the F1 drivers, with many calling it "boring."

F1 drivers give their honest opinion on the Japanese GP

Williams F1 driver Carlos Sainz stated that he believed that Suzuka International Circuit was similar to the streets of Monaco, given the lack of overtaking. As per ESPN, the Spanish driver spoke about the lack of racing and said, via ESPN:

"The midfield is so tight and around a track where you need to be 0.7 to 0.8 seconds quicker to pass it was impossible to expect a race where you could come back through the field. This a track that has, in a way, become similar to Monaco in how difficult it is to pass."

Kick Sauber F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg had similar thoughts on his race, as he added:

"Long, dull, not much happening. I spent a lot of the race in traffic and it's not much fun looking at someone's rear wing in the DRS. It's so difficult with these cars in the dirty air."

Hulkenberg's teammate Gabriel Bortoleto was also in a similar predicament at the back of the grid and concluded:

"Even if you have more pace, which was my case towards the end of the race, it was not enough to have that really big pace advantage. I tried two times [to overtake] but I wasn't able to be side by side at the end of the straight."

With the next couple of track layouts in Bahrain and Jeddah being more friendly for overtaking, it would be fascinating to see if the driver would have similar complaints at the end of those two events in the coming weeks.