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Wednesday 10 May 2023 06:10, UK
Martin Brundle, Karun Chandhok and Natalie Pinkham debate how racing could be improved in Formula 1 in the latest Sky Sports F1 Podcast.
It has been a much-talked-about topic in recent rounds of the 2023 season with Red Bull dominating out front while overtaking for others in the field has appeared more difficult compared to last year.
Many drivers were questioned on the topic at the Miami GP last weekend, with a range of viewpoints and suggestions offered up.
And on the latest episode of the Sky Sports F1 Podcast, which you can listen to in the player below, Sky pundits Brundle, Chandhok and Pinkham joined Matt Baker to discuss ways of improving racing going forwards.
Chandhok believes that Grands Prix would be immediately spiced up if F1's Sporting Regulations were updated to include a requirement for all three compounds of slick tyres to be used in dry races.
"I still think we should have a regulation where you have to use all three tyre compounds in the race. You will have a two-stop race," Chandhok said.
"I got told by engineers that they couldn't have done that in Miami because the soft tyre wasn't good enough but so what? It would have done five or six laps and at some point they will have all had to use it for six to eight laps and it would have jumbled things up around the pit stops.
"I still haven't understood why it hasn't happened. A lot of criticism now is that we're doing too much to create a show and fakeness. For me, this is a Sporting Regulation like you have any other sort of rules - all I'm talking about is you have a line in the Sporting Regulations so it does it in a way that doesn't create a fake race.
"You'll get some convergence because all the strategists are of a similar mindset and would probably come up with the same similar optimum strategy, but with a way the undercuts and overcuts would work and when they use the tyres you will have some variance by definition.
"I'd like to see it happen. We seem to be in a culture of more openness with trying Sprints, trying Qualy formats and other different things, I'd like to see a bit of variety for the main Grand Prix because I feel like we've not done anything with that in terms of the lights out to chequered flag."
Both Chandhok and Brundle feel the lack of competition to Red Bull at the very front of the field has made the 2023 season more predictable so far, but Brundle would also like to see drivers be able to push flat out more in races.
"I'd go with that. The best races unquestionably are the marginal two-stoppers - will they get to the end without needing a third stop? - followed by the marginal one-stoppers which we used to have a lot with tyres falling off the cliff. They manage that a lot better these days, both at Pirelli and in the teams. You don't necessarily want to fabricate it but the tyres are there, they've done a world tour, let's put them on and use them.
"What is the essence of Formula 1? For me it is unbelievable speed and excellence. Those two things together and those are what we should always be aiming for. It's about the finest engineering, this extraordinary speed so should tyres even be a factor at all in that respect? It would be fascinating if you had mandatory pit stops as well to know just how fast and hard these races could look if tyre degradation was taken out of the equation.
"Something that is hitting quite hard this season as well is as the teams have loaded the cars up with downforce, and maybe the regulation change to get rid of some porpoising, I think it's undoubtedly harder to follow and stay close and generally race around another F1 car. The essence of what the 2022 cars were all about is beginning to fade away."
Pinkham feels the key ingredient in an F1 race is drivers facing jeopardy.
"Predictions in terms of the behaviour of the tyres have been wrong. You can't really make those predictions beforehand and even if the soft tyres only lasted five laps it would be worth it, it would cause chaos," she said.
"The key word for me is jeopardy. There needs to be that sense of jeopardy. I'm not a fan of seeing big crashes but I need to feel on the edge of my seat, that I don't know what's going to happen next.
"There is always an element of that in motorsport and we shouldn't be disappointed that it doesn't deliver every single week but we do need to feel on the edge of our seat."
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