I think you would get the opposite effect. A shorter braking distance forces more errors than a long one, or so I think. If you think I'm mistaken, well, it might be, I will not argue. All I can show is that when the conditions are more extreme (like in longer straights followed by really, really tight turns, when you look for a difference of maybe 200 kph or more and over 3 G) you get more overtakes. I've shown several times a graph that presents a larger difference among tracks that among years of the calendar.
In my particular case, I find easier to make mistakes (and be overtaken) with more effective brakes. Same happens to me with throttle: I find harder to drive the cars with more power.
Besides, more effective brakes are safer, just look at the last accident: I estimate (from the video) that Kovalainen managed to diminish speed at least 100 kph in the short distance he went over asphalt. Many "modern" tracks give safety to spectators using paved runoff areas. Less effective brakes will mean a larger distance from spectators to cars.
Let's hear Willi Webber again: "Within the last 15 years, no rule change has kept what it has promised". Of course, just because Mr. Webber says so, that doesn't mean we have to lose all hope, but I've shown several times that rule changing during the last 10 years has not modified in a significant way the number of overtakings.
Yes, it's true that in the
previous 10 or 15 years there were much more overtakes.
I think (humbly, I swear) that cars have progressed while tracks didn't. Maybe that explain that curious tendency, but the truth is that no one at this forum has been able to explain it: from 600 overtakes to 200 and something in 10 years and then a plateau since 1997 or so. I believe there is something deeper at work here than mere changes in regulations.
If you ask me, I believe that more regulations level the field, or so I think, but even if I'm right at that, its effect must be slight. Just look at NASCAR, where there is no braking and a lot of overtakes. In my opinion, the huge difference is in the tracks: at ovals even 4 cars can go abreast. Anyway, I'm kind of obsessed with tracks, so I must be wrong.
Anyway, just in case, here is a thread that sums up the data we have gotten:
Improving the ability of F1 cars to overtake ontrack
If you can find any effect from braking regulations (if they have ever changed) or braking technology I would be most delighted, no sarcasm here at all, many have tried to make sense of that info (check the graph I present in page 2 of that thread, the one with the tendencies or linear regressions).
