The new and greener Formula One calendar has seen the start this campaign return to Melbourne before heading logically to China and again to Japan which is also in the Pacific rim. Interference from Ramadan last year saw the first two Grand Prix take place on Saturday’s in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, this year F1 is returning to the Middle East, kind of on its way back home to Europe via Miami.
One advantage of this shift in the calendar is while fans in Europe on the whole sleep, two of the least entertaining circuits are already out of the way for the year. China and Japan often host processional affairs as it turned out the year in both Shanghai and Suzuka.
In fact in the last ten Japanese Grand Prix, only three times has the race been won from pole and on two of those occasions it was a Mercedes’ driver beating the other dominant Mercedes car. There was promise of rain for Sunday and whilst the track was moist when the hit lane opened, come the start of the race there was little water to trouble the drivers who were all on slick tyres.
Circuit design adds to boring F1 races
With Bahrain up next the racing should be more interesting given the tyre degradation will be much higher than it was in Japan creating different strategies for the teams. Next up then will be Jeddah, a street circuit which in four year’s of hosting F1 has seen the pole sitter claim victory in the Grand Prix on Sunday.
The reasons overtaking is becoming ever more difficult in Formula One is due to a variety of factors. The most important is track design and in Suzuka the lack of a proper straight for DRS to be effective or more than one hard braking zone means the cars behind rarely have enough pace advantage to make the move stick.
To add to the problem, the surface at Suzuka had been replaced and the new asphalt was creating hardly any tyre wear making it more difficult for one driver to gain the 0.8second offset required to make a move stick.
The first of the European circuits with a layout that equally makes overtaking difficult is the one in Emilia-Romagne as evidenced last year in the Grand Prix. As happened this year in Japan, Max stole pole in a car not as quick as the McLaren and Norris again paid the price for lack of track position as he harried the Red Bull driver for much of the race, but couldn’t get close enough to make an overtake stick.
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Monaco F1 forced into new race strategy
As the F1 cars evolve over the years, some of the older circuits are less suitable for racing with the modern behemoth size cars. Monaco have been forced into taking action to spice up their annual procession through the narrow streets of the principality and from this year the drivers will be forced to make two mandatory pit stops regardless of tyre wear.
All things being equal, this would make no difference to the kind of races we see on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, but its dependent on the error count increasing with each pit stop, where a missed mark or frozen wheel nut gun can cost a driver positions when returning to the track.
One other advantage of the mandatory two stop in Monaco will be the drivers should be pushing flat out for most of the race. Again with drivers on the limit for longer during the marathon street race, this may create more mistakes and provide opportunities for others.
Other suggestions have been put forward which would spice up F1 racing on an otherwise predictable race track. F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone floated the idea fitting sprinklers around the circuits so a wet weather session could be simulated even without the weather obliging.
F1: Make it rain
The promise of rain in Suzuka continued into the race, with Lando Norris told their would be a light shower around the track come lap 20. The fans played their part and the rain dance was duly initiated, but the heavens remained firmly closed and the race was dry from start to finish.
Following a predictably dull F1 event in 2011, Ecclestone put forward his sprinkler idea stating: “We always had the most exciting races in the wet, so let’s think of making rain. There are race tracks you can make artificially wet and it would be easy to have such systems at a number of tracks. Why not let it ‘rain’ in the middle of a race for 20 minutes, or the last 10 laps? Maybe with a two-minute warning ahead of it.
“Suspense would be guaranteed,” added the F1 supremo.
Ecclestone added there of course would have to be protocols, so the teams and the drivers could prepare for such an event as they do currently with the weather forecast. The race could be identified before the weekend with a percentage chance of rain, then the various configurations of rain simulation would have to be locked into the computer and triggered at random.
2026 rules to tackle overtaking problems
Purists will complain that this is artificial racing and of course if the race leader has just passed the pit lane entrance when the heavens open, he would be disadvantaged compared to those already on a lap. Yet theorist argument was lost with the introduction of DRS which in itself makes racing by definition somewhat artificial.
With regard to artificial racing, the 2026 regulations take this a step further. Whilst DRS itself will be dropped, there will be moveable front and rear wings under the drivers control to change the aerodynamics of the F1 cars when cornering when compared to on the straight. The angle of the wings will be adjustable and so through the corners the higher downforce mode will be selected and along the straight the wings will be flattened down to reduce drag.
In addition there will be the introduction of a ‘push to pass’ Indycar style power boost, but for the purist this again is not old fashioned racing. Of course as DRS has been justified this is a necessary evil to counter the huge modern cars who displace huge quantities of dirty air at the rear of the cars. In Japan this meant a driver wishing to make an overtake needed to be – WITHOUT DRS – around 8/10ths quicker than the car ahead to make theme and for it to stick.
Of course all this is a result of the field being much closer in modern times than ever before in F1 history. This is evidenced by qualifying this season; In Australia, 17 cars were within 7/10ths in Q1 which became just 6/10th’s for the top 18 in China and in Japan the top 18 were all covered by 7/10ths. This is a success for the FIA and F1 in levelling the playing field, but there are consequences in terms of overtaking and these must be solved one way or another.
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Michael Schumacher’s name still resonates throughout the world of motorsport as one of the most successful and admired drivers in the history of Formula One. A seven-time world champion, Schumacher captivated audiences for decades with his unmatched precision, fierce competitiveness and relentless drive to win. However, since his tragic skiing accident in December 2013, public knowledge of his condition has been extremely limited as his family continue to protect his privacy with unwavering dedication.
On 29 December 2013, Michael Schumacher’s life took a devastating turn during what was supposed to be a relaxing family holiday in the French Alps. While skiing off-piste with his then 14-year-old son Mick near the resort of Méribel, Schumacher lost control and fell, hitting his head on a rock… READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
