© Mercedes
MISCONCEPTION
As surprising as it may sound, if the true impact of the new regulations on the show remains tricky to grasp, it boils down to a lack of preparatory reflection. F1 chiefs deemed faster cars to be the silver bullet to help deliver better racing, before realising it might not be the case…
Overtaking and the conditions that foster it have not been addressed since F1’s eponymous working group studied the topic ahead of 2009’s aero rules revolution. Engineers do not fully master overtaking because an independent body has never studied the phenomenon in a scientific way.
Fortunately, it appears that new F1 owners Liberty Media, which completed their takeover of the sport last month, seem keen to follow a more pragmatic approach in that field.
“One of the things I want to do within FOM is to create the capacity to study those things,” Brawn said. “FOM's never had that capacity and has always had to take the opinions given to it by other parties.
“The FIA do a little bit of that, but what I would like to do is create a small group of people within FOM that have the experience and the knowledge to look at those problems and those challenges so that we have our own opinion on what could be the solution.”
Until then, F1 teams and drivers will have to play by the current rules, while we hope for the best!
Click here for previous chapters of Nicolas Carpentiers' 2017 F1 technical preview
GALLERY: F1 drivers' wives and girlfriends
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