East Londoner wrote:Also, it's been revealed that F1 saw almost a 50% decline in overtaking during 2017. I mean, who would have thought mandating a a stupidly enormous front wing would have such an effect? Which also means, Salamander - if that is your real name, you were right. This formula sucks.
But at the same time, the fastest quali times went up by 2.5 seconds on average.
Besides, it's nowhere near as cut and dry as "oh the cars can't follow". That's rubbish. Why can F2 cars manage it? Because they're the SAME car. In F1, you see the clear hierarchy in the top four of Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and Force India. Usually, they qualify in that order, and so you're not ever going to see them fighting for position unless suddenly one of them steals a march overnight.
It's such a cop-out to say "there's no overtaking it's the aero formula's fault" when you find that the seasons with the biggest overtaking figures were as a result of cars having similar performance and softer tyres. Is it a coincidence that Sochi had just one overtake, and the softest tyres could probably last the whole race?
We had massive overtaking figures in 2012, not because of any aero formula, but because there was such a ridiculous drop-off in tyre quality that people just went backwards. Then, you descend into the argument of quality/quantity. Sure, overtakes have been down this year, but what we've had has been spectacular.
Do I agree that the aero formula now is the best solution? No, focus should be firmly on generating more downforce from the underbody rather than the front and rear wing. But we've had some really great races this year, and to just simply throw "The Armchair Enthusiast's Guide To Aerodynamics" at the whole season without any regard for nuance is just silly.