It must be said that in recent years, despite some good close racing, there has been a distinct lack of overtaking in Formula One. With the top teams having gradually closed the performance gap to each other, the situation has been getting better and this season has so far provided some of the best racing, and overtaking, for several years. With the recent increased pace of Ferrari and Benetton, the future is looking even brighter. According to the drivers though, it is still too difficult to make a passing manoeuvre without the risk of clouting the opposing car off the track. Last year was a good demonstration of how difficult

it is to pass at the top level of the sport. Damon Hill spent most of the season being criticised for his attempts (or lack of them) to overtake his rivals, especially Michael Schumacher. Even the young German found it tough to overtake his opponents. He recently admitted that he would now rather wait for fuel stops to pass his rivals than risk colliding with them on the track. According to the drivers, the problems stem from three things: aerodynamics, brakes and the design of modern circuits.

Aerodynamics

The large wings at the front and back of Formula One cars are designed to help push the car into the ground. When travelling at high speeds, the air flowing over the wings creates downwards acting aerodynamic forces in a similar way to the lift forces generated by aeroplane wings. This is what gives the cars the phenomenal grip that allows them to corner at such high speeds. Time for a Toby Waller Home Science Lesson. Next time you’re in a car, try sticking your hand out of the window (making sure no other cars are overtaking you, of course) and observe how there is a force that makes it hard for you to move your hand forward. Then, put your hand behind an object such as the wing mirror. All of a sudden, the force will disappear, and you can quite happily wiggle your hand about to your heart's content. This is how Formula One drivers gain the extra few miles per hour that enables them to pull alongside a rival before outbraking them into the next corner. When the drivers pull up behind their rival however, there is less clean air and consequently, less downforce available. This is where the problem begins. This lack of downforce is fine along the straights, but when the cars are negotiating a bend, the following driver cannot negotiate the corner as quickly due to his lack of grip. As the cars exit the corner and arrive on the straight, the following driver is too far back to gain any advantage from the slipstream and therefore, cannot close sufficiently on his opponent to attempt an overtaking manoeuvre.

This has been made worse by the 50mm step underneath the cars. Before 1995, the underside was flat and only a few millimetres from the track surface. The air flowing underneath the car acted like a vacumn that sucked the car to the ground. By putting the step in, the cars now have less under-car downforce and a greater emphasis is placed on the wings. Since the wings are the portion of the car most affected by the lack of clean airflow, this has only served to aggravate the problem.

In the middle of April, the FIA announced that a technical working group was being set up to see how this problem could be remedied. A group of engineers from the top four teams, as well as Charlie Whiting and Harvey Postlethwaite on behalf of the FIA, are currently undertaking a three month program of wind tunnel tests at London’s Imperial College. Two 40% model cars have been placed, nose to tail, to simulate the conditions of two cars running in close succession. With the information from these tests, the team can hopefully understand why driving behind an opponent’s car is currently so difficult, and how the regulations can be altered to allow easier overtaking. Two possibilities are the return to flat undersides, or a even a beneficially shaped underside such as those used in Indycars. This would raise cornering speeds and therefore, decrease lap times. Such a move would be unpopular with the sports governing body. The only other possibility is the removal of the wings, or at least a substantial reduction in their size. This move would be unpopular with the teams, the wing is the most prominent site for sponsors, but would probably be approved by the FIA since cornering speeds would decrease, a valuable further addition in the quest for improved safety.

Circuit Design

The trend of modern, safe, TV friendly circuits has done nothing to ease the overtaking problem. With long straights being broken up by chicanes, and fast corners being changed into slower ones, the ability of two cars to run close together for long periods of time has been eliminated. The ideal overtaking situation is probably a medium speed corner, leading into a long straight, followed by a sharp bend that has a long braking area and therefore, more room for out-braking manoeuvres. After the tragedies at Imola in 1994, many circuits were ravaged by the circuit owners, and once great overtaking opportunities were transformed into silly chicanes. Gradually, some of the more challenging corners are returning. With circuits like Hungary and Argentina still on the calendar though, there is still a long way to go before we can look forward to every circuit providing several realistic overtaking opportunities.

Brakes

Some drivers believe that the difficulty in overtaking is also a consequence of the phenomenal stopping power of the brakes on Formula One cars. Both the pads, and the discs, of a modern set of racing brakes are made of carbon fibre, and can cost a team up to £750,000 per season. The Williams team recently tested steel brakes to see if a return to a less hi-tech material would help increase the braking distances. The results were disappointing. The steel technology had advanced sufficiently as to render the difference between carbon and steel virtually unnoticeable. It was even said by the drivers that there was a better "feel" with the steel brakes, despite the fact that they began to slightly lose performance over the course of a race-distance run. It is also widely felt by the team bosses that simply banning carbon brakes wouldn't suffice. The teams, searching for those few valuable tenths of a second, would probably spend as much, if not more, on researching newer and better materials. They suggest that a standard brake material is probably the best way to go if any regulations were altered.

However, with the advent of Bridgestone joining Goodyear as a tyre supplier next year, another problem could soon affect the ability of the cars to overtake one another. For four years now, the tyres have been supplied by just one manufacturer, Goodyear. Bridgestone however, are now planning to begin supplying tyres to Formula One, possibly as early as next year. With Michelin and Pirelli rumoured to be following soon after, a tyre war is looking a distinct possibility. If such a war was to begin, it is estimated that cornering speeds would increase dramatically and lap times decrease by as much as four seconds a lap. It was widely acknowledged in the late 1980's that if you weren't on the right tyres, you had no chance of being competitive, and the teams on the poorer tyres often struggled to keep up with the front runners. If this were to happen today, there would presumably be less overtaking than if there were just one control tyre, supplied by one manufacturer. The governing body, ever mindful of safety and increasing costs, looks set to tender out the contract for tyre supply, and hopefully eradicate this problem for the time being.

Personally, I hope something can be done without substantially altering the appearance, or performance, of the cars yet again. The rules have been altered all too frequently in the past, and the teams have only just had the chance to design cars to a set of regulations that they have dealt with before. This has probably assisted in closing the performance gap between teams, and helped make this year's championship one of the best yet. Also, Formula One should be difficult. Drivers would not want to compete if they thought it would be almost impossible, or even too easy, to overtake. A good overtaking manoeuvre, whilst rare nowadays, is always praised because it takes a special kind of skill to be able to do it. The sort of skill that we mere mortals can only marvel at. Whilst I, as much as anyone, would love to see more overtaking, I wouldn't want it to be through the sacrifice of wings on the cars. If we were to remove the very item that makes a Formula One car look like a Formula One car, then we may as well be watching Touring Cars or Formula Ford. Whilst these formulae are undoubtedly exciting, I don’t think I would find them half as intriguing as Formula One. Would you?