The alarm over overtaking in F1
In recent weeks, our publication has also put the magnifying glass on many situations seen on track in F1 that are definitely improvable, both for the show and for safety. Primarily qualifying, where it is counterproductive for the driver to go to the limit, but also on overtaking favored by superclipping and the difference in charging between the cars. This last aspect can create situations of great danger, as denounced by the protagonists themselves and as was graphically seen in the accident between Franco Colapinto of Alpine and Oliver Bearman of Haas.
Formula 1 has a meeting scheduled in London on April 9, in which the possibility of an immediate and future modification of the current regulatory system will be evaluated.
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Gary Anderson is afraid
The words of the Northern Irish designer Gary Anderson – who has a long career behind him with McLaren, Ensign, Jordan, Stewart and Jaguar – to the British Telegraph express precisely the paddock’s concern about the danger of certain situations.
Anderson explained: “F1 must change the dangerous rules, otherwise someone will get killed. The FIA must take part of the responsibility for Bearman’s accident. It was an accident waiting to happen when you have a system that allows two cars at enormously different speeds to run on the same track. And I am sure we will see it again. If it had happened during an overtaking move at the entry of Turn 1, it would have been like a plane crash – potentially risking a fatality“. The engineer then analyzed these rules as a whole: “A GP is no longer a physically exhausting race and this difference is noticeable on tracks like Suzuka, Spa and Silverstone. Seeing cars overtake each other is fun, but they are not competitive overtakes: there is still much to be done to make everything more like a race”.
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Jacques Villeneuve: “Danger that shouldn’t be there”
On this type of accident risk, Jacques Villeneuve told Canal+ explained: “In this race at Suzuka we saw the negative side of the regulations. The track did not lend itself to good overtaking and we saw the dangerous aspect with the Colapinto episode. He was going in slow motion and the speed difference created a danger that shouldn’t be there”.
