Over the past few months there has been a lot of talk in the press regarding the state of overtaking in modern Formula One. Up until Sunday 15th October, I would have been quick to disagree to this opinion. After all, we have seen more overtaking in the past few races than we have for a long time. What has changed this opinion? The Sunday before last I went to see the final round of the Best of British Motorsport at the Thruxton circuit which included the final, deciding round of the British Formula 3 Championship.

As is often seen in F1, the main protagonists Oliver Gavin and Ralph Firman were not on the front row (Gavin third and Firman 7th) and it looked like there was going to be a good race ahead. After a first lap incident taking 3 cars out at the omplex, there were no collisions but a surprising amount of good, clean overtaking manoeuvres. A large number of these occurred at the Complex (a sweeping left into a tight right and then a tight left and a sweeping right) with many drivers diving on the inside of the corner to take a place. Even if they made the corner first, there was no guarantee that they would end up first as they exited... as there is an opportunity to repass at the next bend. As I said before, there were no collisions -- every driver gave way where prudent and pushed where necessary -- and was a better race for it. Whether this is the way everyone drives or it's the strict rules, I can't say but it WAS a pleasant change.

This brings me onto F1. If you look at all the races this year, most of the "racing" at the front has been decided by the pit crews and not the drivers. Even when a driver does get up to another and tries to overtake, neither of them will often give way to the other resulting in a collision or one of the pair going off line (or off the track) and spoiling the spectacle. Everyone watches F1 to see racing, not a pit crew battle or one driver running away with the race on his own. In my mind, the FIA and FOCA need to realise that without the viewer they have NOTHING and that it is the viewer that should be pleased -- not the big money names and sponsors.

At the Nurburgring we saw two notable incidents involving Damon Hill and Schumacher or Alesi. A lot of people have heard about Hill's comments regarding the clarification of the existing rules. For those who haven't it basically runs like this:

At the Nurburgring and Spa, Hill was trying to overtake Schumacher (both GP's) or Alesi (European GP) and they both drove very aggressively and chopped him off at various occasions. Hill wanted a definite decision from Max Mosley (President of the FIA) to state whether this style of driving was acceptable or not so that he could drive like this if it was and not be penalised.

Now, to a lot of people this seems like sour grapes over his slightly lacklustre performance at the two GP's in question... but, it is a valid point. The last rule that the FIA was considering said once a driver got his front wheels in front of another's rear wheels, it was the driver in front who should give way. This was a poor rule as it would have led to Mickey Mouse races (mind you it would have meant Schumacher was at fault at Silverstone). This proposed ruling was scrapped but this left a bit of a vacuum behind regarding solid, definite rules to do with overtaking.

At this point a lot of readers are probably saying "If you're so smart, what should be done about it?". To this I can provide two answers, the first is if the FIA can't do it, why do I have to find a solution. The second is a simple solution: When it proves dangerous to "close the door" slap on a fine or a ban, and do the same with people trying to drive through gaps that don't exist. This won't cut out crashes altogether, but it will cut down the number of retirements through stupidity dramatically.

Finally I would like to congratulate both Oliver Gavin and Michael Schumacher for winning both their respective Championship's and I would also like to say that despite my branding of F1 as a tad dull on occasions, I am one of the idiots who got up at 4:45am to watch the Pacific and Japanese GP's... so, I can't be that disillusioned..