2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Baku, April 28 - 30

[AR3-GP]

On mobile so can’t say too much but your stat is for Baku is an outlier. There are reports that consider the overtaking statistics across all GP events, in the different years and they support that the 2022 regs increased overtaking on average, even though there are outliers like you show for Baku where the trend is opposite.

As for the spec car comment, I don’t want this, to be clear. It’s just that using observation, you can see that F1 has messed about with the formula for something like 30 years, and has yet to hit the holy grail. Why are you so confident they will ever find it? I’m not. We have tried so many different things from refueling to cheese tires to moving front wings. What is left that has not been done already?

As for your engine freeze comment, again, it wasn’t until 2021 that anyone had a legal engine that could match Mercedes. That’s from a lifting of the freeze that started in 2015!

It's not the only outlier, and was not meant to occur given the reason for the rule change. Besides that, the vast majority of overtaking is conducted using DRS. The only difference is in 2022 and some parts of 23 it was more powerful then years preceding that. Less drag was meant to be a game changer but has turned into same same.

There has been many years including in the hybrid era where teams have been close. Even then there differentiators which might have been better controlled. Trying to find cause and acting in a measured fashion has almost never happened. So equating previous efforts as the limit is a very low baseline to start from. And certainly is far better to attempt change than to leave things in the sorry state they're in now.

Ferrari did not have an illegal engine. The FIA said as much by saying they weren't satisfied but couldn't prove anything and it had suspicions it couldn't prove. If it was illegal results would've been excluded and reason for illegality published. So the engine was on a very good comparative level in 2016, albeit with a mediocre chassis, 12 months after action was taken by the FIA when it was clear a redressing of the balance was needed.

And the greater point being that almost 10 years ago the FIA exhibited greater reflexive reaction to the situation than what we are seeing today. Hell even Domenicalli was saying he sees no reason to change anything and that fans dont mind seeing Red Bull domination. He then frames that by laughably saying

But if you look at the others, the other teams are very close, very, very close.

They have gone past the 2014 decision point and are happy with the state of affairs.

The 2016 Ferrari engine wasn't competitive, it was just better than what they had the year before. If we are allowing the Ferrari engine, then it was 2018 at best when they were close enough.

I'm not suggesting nothing can be improved, I'm only suggesting you have not given it time. Ferrari are making great strides in understanding now. Aston Martin jumped from the back to fighting with Ferrari and Merc. Red Bull's development penalty looks like it could hamper them in addition to big improvements.

Let's see what you think about it after the first round of upgrades.

[PlatinumZealot]

Switch to Indycar style push to pass and eliminate DRS. Consider giving reverse grid allotments with the most seconds to the last place qualifying car and least to P1. If there is a dominant team, then at least keep it interesting by having them win by 10 seconds instead of 45 plus

They can use fan-boost. Ground effect fans that add down-force when following. The fans require a lot of power, so it would sap the battery; meaning the driver would have to be very judicious in its use.

[Chuckjr]

Maybe kiss is best applied here, and just do simple weight penalties for podium positions?

[ValeVida46]

The 2016 Ferrari engine wasn't competitive, it was just better than what they had the year before. If we are allowing the Ferrari engine, then it was 2018 at best when they were close enough.

I'm not suggesting nothing can be improved, I'm only suggesting you have not given it time. Ferrari are making great strides in understanding now. Aston Martin jumped from the back to fighting with Ferrari and Merc. Red Bull's development penalty looks like it could hamper them in addition to big improvements.

Let's see what you think about it after the first round of upgrades.

So you agree then the scope for improvement allowed them to close the gap? Ferrari's 2016 performance was not confined to the PU not being as good as the Mercedes. They struggled all season with the soft tyres, balance and reliability as well as the usual Ferrari strategy mishaps. Vettel himself said there wasn't anything wrong with the outright pace or power of the car. Conflating numerous issues as "2016 engine wasn't competitive" is disingenuous.
It was essentially the same engine (2016) used in 2017 which had TJI tech and bumped up their horsepower considerably.
As per f1tech...
https://www.f1technical.net/news/20316


Besides that, PU lead times are inherently longer than aero or chassis/suspension. What 2016 did show was that the decisions taken at the end of 2014 beginning 2015, gave opportunities for which Ferrari then went on to win 5 races in 2017.

I also think citing Aston Martin as an improvement is a double edged sword for your argument. You don't want spec but their engine, gearbox and rear suspension and crash structure is Mercedes. Maybe this is the way forward, with teams buying parts from other to allow for greater budget potential to get the likes of Fallows in?
I wouldn't be against it if it meant competitive racing.

And yes I'm willing to wait and see what happens with team updates and if there will be any impact for the Red Bull development penalty. I can't predict the future but this trend is not looking at all good for the sport.