Who Said Overtaking Was Easy ?

Formula 1 Debrief is a 30 minute program on SPEED TV, which reviews each Round of the Formula 1 World Championship. Last Saturday, the hosts were discussing Round 8, held at Silverstone (England).Despite FOTA (Formula One Teams Association) and the FIA currently doing an excellent job of ripping Formula 1 to shreds with their constant bickering, the venue was packed with 90,000 strong. Formula 1 maintains a loyal following in England, possibly as a result of the fact that, several of the teams on the grid are based in England ( Red Bull Renault, Brawn Mercedes, Williams BMW and McLaren Mercedes).In addition, two  of the more popular drivers are English(defending World Champion Lewis Hamilton and the ‘Man on Fire’ – Jensen Button, who is leading the championship at present).

My interest in the recap had nothing to do with the number in attendance or the official results. Truth be told, I did not watch the race, for reasons directly connected to what I will discuss.

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel, driving his Red Bull Renault took the pole position during qualifying and what still mystifies the other teams, is the fact that he did so, with a heavy fuel load. Some will argue that he has a superior car, thanks to Adrian Nuey (the designer) but, I would argue that a superior car in the hands of a less than competent driver, would not be on pole. Anyway, when the race began on Sunday, Vettel drove off into the sunset, checkered flag in tow, in a race with himself. His performance exceeded dominance, it was crushing.

While I was listening to the hosts of the program as they discussed the race, I heard statements being made suggesting that Nick Hiedfeld (Williams BMW) : a) ‘held up a parade of cars’ including those driven by Alonzo and Hamilton and also that, b) Hiedfeld ‘ruined the race for others’ .At that point I started listening intently. The icing on the cake came, when one of the hosts asked if the stewards should have done something about Hiedfeld’s car, which was ‘holding up’ the other (faster) cars. Can I tell you, I was wondering if they were talking about race cars!

Lewis Hamilton

Overtaking

I will make my point now. In any race series worth its price of admission, a slower or an underperforming car will be passed by the faster or more powerful cars. This founding principle of motor racing does not apply in Formula 1. For the most part, where you qualify, (thus starting on race day) may jolly well determine where you finish.

The typical Formula 1 team, consumes a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars (US). Jamaica could do well with a loan from a Formula 1 team. Despite the ‘gazillions’ (my word) spent, it is a very difficult enterprise for a faster or more powerful car to overtake, as was the case at Silverstone. Let us review the available literature.

Hiedfeld damaged his front wing on lap 2 of the race .At that time, he was running close to the front of the pack. As a result of the damage, he was losing on average, 1.5 seconds per lap. By lap 20, he was more than 30 seconds behind the leader and travelling rather slowly (based on the lap times).Despite the damage and his lack of speed, the defending World Champion, Lewis Hamilton, two times World Champion Alonzo and others, could not overtake Nick Hiedfeld .The engineers and the other brilliant people who benefit from the limitless resources of the teams will tell you about, for example, ‘dirty air’ upsetting the car behind, thus inhibiting easy overtaking.

Exciting Racing

Call me silly, label me foolish but, it is my view, ignorant as it may be, that frequent overtaking throughout the field and numerous lead changes, on the track and not in the pits, will intensify the experience for the fans and create an exhilarating series. If you are interested in ‘real’ racing, if you have not done so as yet, watch the following race series and tell me what you think. MotoGP, AMA Pro Racing, FIM Series (sport-bikes), SPEED World Challenge, American Lemans Series, Rolex Sports Car Series and if the American V8 is your thing there is always NASCAR .Even if the racing fails (NASCAR), the spectacular crashes will keep your heart at full throttle!

Cecil Munroe Jr. Gleaner On-line Writer