![inside f1 racing 2017 inside f1 racing 2017](https://cdn-2.motorsport.com/images/amp/0kPQwgv2/s6/f1-barcelona-pre-season-testing-i-2017-daniel-ricciardo-red-bull-racing-rb13.jpg)
Throw in ever-reducing braking distances into corners, and the picture becomes complete.Īs Rick Mears said to me at Indianapolis this year, “The guys in charge don’t get it, do they? Over time racing has been progressively ruined by ‘aero’ – by more and more downforce, so that you have a situation where cornering speeds are way too high, and straightline speeds – because of all that drag – way too low.
![inside f1 racing 2017 inside f1 racing 2017](https://cdn-8.motorsport.com/images/mgl/2yoxNXK6/s8/sim-racing-f1-2017-2017-f1-2017.jpg)
It’s really not too difficult to understand, is it? As soon as you create a situation – ‘dirty air’ – where closely following another car through a corner becomes a near impossibility you’re bound to reduce the possibility of overtaking on the following straight. Over the years we had heard that frequently, but invariably the concern was with cornering speeds. The changes made to contain them were always to do with reducing aerodynamic downforce, which – as anyone old enough to remember the sport before the advent of wings will tell you – has had only a detrimental effect on the quality of racing.
![inside f1 racing 2017 inside f1 racing 2017](https://d2d0b2rxqzh1q5.cloudfront.net/sv/3.65/dir/776/image/776c74b16b66b26e0953177d04f15577.jpg)
Sign up Subscribeįunny now, is it not, to look back a decade or so and remember what the powers-that-be were saying about Formula 1, and the way it needed to change? According to FIA President Max Mosley it was all getting a little too fast and the time for action had come. Sign-up now for access to a limited number of articles.