Just my two cent, as someone new to the forum, but not new to F1, but admittedly less knowledgeable than a lot of others on here. This post is also partially about the "the good old days" and not just passing in general. However, I see a lot of people here and on the Speed Channel forums longing for the good old days, often accompanied by some comment that there was more passing back then.
While I would like to see some more overtaking, I think a big problem is that we don't see a lot of the overtaking going on. The world feed often seems to fixate on a few select drivers, including the leader, and so we often seem to miss some of the passes - though we often see them in replay after the fact.
Also, am I the only one who thinks that passing SHOULD be difficult? Racing is as much about passing as it is avoiding being passed. To me, the fact that passing is so difficult just makes passes that much more interesting and memorable.
And sort of along the same lines, for those complaining about (the lack of) overtaking, and complaining about faster cars being held up by slower cars, if you increase passing by making it easier, I have a feeling all you're going to see is slightly more passing early on in the race, followed by the last 3/4 of the race being a parade. After all, if passing is made easier, it seems likely that the faster driver/car combos will get sort themselves quicker. I'm not stating this as fact, but as what I think would be the logical outcome, and I'm really curious to what others think about this.
I didn't start following F1 till about 1993 when I was 11 or 12, and even then it was mostly through magazines and whatnot, as I lacked any way to consistently watch the races. That said, I have gone and watched a lot of races from times gone by, basically just about every race I could get my hands on. While there were some select classic battles "back in the day", I don't see overtaking being that much more prevalent in yesteryears as people seem to make it out to be. To me it reminds me of music or movies. People always say music and movies from times gone by were so much better than that of today, yet they forget all that crap and fluff from those times. To me, it's a similar thing in F1 - people only remember that which was worth remembering. Surely people don't remember every single race from each season. People aren't going to remember the snoozers of races - they're going to remember the exciting races. In the short time I've been able to watch F1 on a consistent basis, I remember quite a few exciting races and moments.
I guess a good example is how the Dijon '79 battle between Arnoux and Villeneuve gets posted quite a bit as an example of when racing was "better". If it was so much better back then, why aren't there more clips like this one being posted constantly?
Also, I've seen in the past people showing off the Senna holding off Mansell (at Monaco) video as an example of cars being able to follow each other closely. Yet no one ever seems to realize that while Mansell is following closer than what might normally be possible today, it also shows that bringing back H pattern gearboxes, etc isn't necessarily going to be a magic fix.
I'm not saying anyone here is guilty of these two examples, just something I've noticed over the years as I've become more involved in F1 forums.
Anyway, please go easy on me, I'm new here, so try not to rip my arguement into too many tiny pieces
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Doesnt cost anything after all! What do you think? I can perhaps do some calculations and show it work...