Truth be told, there�s not enough wheel-to-wheel racing in Formula One because the cars are too fast and the designers too clever for the sport�s own good. Huge aerodynamic downforce and super-efficient carbon-fibre brakes mean that braking distances are incredibly short, which limits passing opportunities. On the right tracks, of course, cars can still pass one another, but overall, passing is rare.
Some folks maintain that because passing is such a rare thing, it�s lent extra spice when it does occur. These people are called Formula One apologists. The act of overtaking encapsulates the combat of the whole sport; it is one driver pitting his skill against the other in a split-second of opportunity and either succeeding or failing in his move. It also forms a natural dynamic in the story of the race, without which the event can simply appear as a succession of cars being driven very fast.
The format of some circuits makes overtaking more feasible than at others. These �passing� circuits tend to be the favourites of both drivers and spectators.
Most drivers enjoy the combative element of overtaking but the huge braking and cornering grip of the cars makes it an exceptionally difficult thing to do. It tends to happen when two cars are braking for a corner. In cars that decelerate from 200 mph to 40 mph in around three-seconds, and in a space little longer than a cricket pitch, the driver doing the overtaking has just a tiny window of opportunity to position his car and brake later than the guy in front.
Get it a little bit wrong and a collision is a near-certainty. With a rival close behind him, the driver in front must try to ensure he is not vulnerable into the braking areas. He needs to ensure he is not slow down the preceding straight and to do this he needs to ensure he gets a good exit from the corner leading onto that straight. But sometimes this is impossible to do for more than a few successive corners because the driver behind, if he�s clever, can force him into taking a defensive line into a corner that prevents him being passed there but which makes him slow coming out and therefore vulnerable to attack into the next turn. It can be a game of brains as well as bravery and skill.
There�s a tingle of anticipation when a driver is closing down on the leader in the race�s closing stages on a track where overtaking is feasible. Never was this better demonstrated than in the 2000 Belgian Grand Prix where Mika Hakkinen closed down on Michael Schumacher. That he then passed him in a fantastic gladiatorial way with just a couple of laps remaining brought the race to a climactic end.
Changes have been made to make more of this sort of thing possible, such as the circuit redesign at the Nurburgring in 2002 and the imposition of the one blocking move rule in the 1990s. But more radical changes to both cars and circuits are probably still necessary; overtaking is arguably too much on the impossible side of ��difficult�� on too many tracks at the moment.
Some folks maintain that because passing is such a rare thing, it�s lent extra spice when it does occur. These people are called Formula One apologists. The act of overtaking encapsulates the combat of the whole sport; it is one driver pitting his skill against the other in a split-second of opportunity and either succeeding or failing in his move. It also forms a natural dynamic in the story of the race, without which the event can simply appear as a succession of cars being driven very fast.
The format of some circuits makes overtaking more feasible than at others. These �passing� circuits tend to be the favourites of both drivers and spectators.
Most drivers enjoy the combative element of overtaking but the huge braking and cornering grip of the cars makes it an exceptionally difficult thing to do. It tends to happen when two cars are braking for a corner. In cars that decelerate from 200 mph to 40 mph in around three-seconds, and in a space little longer than a cricket pitch, the driver doing the overtaking has just a tiny window of opportunity to position his car and brake later than the guy in front.
Get it a little bit wrong and a collision is a near-certainty. With a rival close behind him, the driver in front must try to ensure he is not vulnerable into the braking areas. He needs to ensure he is not slow down the preceding straight and to do this he needs to ensure he gets a good exit from the corner leading onto that straight. But sometimes this is impossible to do for more than a few successive corners because the driver behind, if he�s clever, can force him into taking a defensive line into a corner that prevents him being passed there but which makes him slow coming out and therefore vulnerable to attack into the next turn. It can be a game of brains as well as bravery and skill.
There�s a tingle of anticipation when a driver is closing down on the leader in the race�s closing stages on a track where overtaking is feasible. Never was this better demonstrated than in the 2000 Belgian Grand Prix where Mika Hakkinen closed down on Michael Schumacher. That he then passed him in a fantastic gladiatorial way with just a couple of laps remaining brought the race to a climactic end.
Changes have been made to make more of this sort of thing possible, such as the circuit redesign at the Nurburgring in 2002 and the imposition of the one blocking move rule in the 1990s. But more radical changes to both cars and circuits are probably still necessary; overtaking is arguably too much on the impossible side of ��difficult�� on too many tracks at the moment.
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