Sebastian Vettel believes many inside Formula 1 need to calm down and accept the sport doesn’t need record numbers of overtakes to be exciting, following statistics which showed a near 50% fall in 2017
The major overhaul in car design allied to more durable tyres meant there was only 435 overtakes this past season compared to the record total of 866 from the year before which also included one more race.
What also didn’t help was a processional final race in Abu Dhabi which many considered to be the worst of the 20 rounds and was blamed on the two factors mentioned and also the track design.
Pirelli has already made efforts to make the tyres a greater performance differentiator by going one step softer with their compounds while Managing Director of Motorsport, Ross Brawn has also begun research on changes both to the cars and circuits which could enable greater overtaking but the Ferrari driver believes it is being overhyped.
“A wish for next year is that everybody calms down,” Vettel told Autosport last week. “Some races are boring, so what? I don’t see the problem in that. I don’t think we need another record, another record every race, to have more overtaking and more overtaking.
“It’s true that overtaking [is hard] sometimes, especially if you’re behind and you’re fast and you can’t get past for those reasons, it annoys you but then again if you make the move there is a massive reward inside the car, sometimes out of the car.
“What I want to say is that overtaking should be an achievement and not handed to you,” he added. “Sometimes just relax and calm down and accept a boring race or a boring two races in a row and then there will be another great race after that and another one.”
Former teammate Daniel Ricciardo agreed with the German, pointing out it is tough to get the balance between a fast, challenging car like F1 has thanks to the current designs while also making overtaking easier.
“I think Seb’s right in some ways, that’s just the way it is and that’s the way some tracks are laid out,” said the Australian. “I think the wider cars and all that look great and they’ve given us more downforce and grip but when they take up more space on the track you have less clean air to try to find so it does make following harder so that one is good and bad.”
World champion Lewis Hamilton is adamant something must be done, however, after being one of the main critics of Yas Marina following the season finale yet also criticised DRS by suggesting his comeback in Brazil was dull because his moves were so easy.
“On the racing side, I hope moving forwards, overtaking gets easier,” he said. “Not easier, but being able to follow each other is really what the sport needs. The more overtaking the more fun it is for people to watch.”
