Are the 2009 regulation changes to encourage overtaking in F1 a total failure?

Major changes in F1 regulations to encourage overtaking have failed to conquer dirty air. With overtaking still a major problem, F1 is left with the remnants of the regulations in the form of ugly cars. But has this latest drive by the FIA’s Technical Working Group been a total disaster and what’s next in F1’s quest for more overtaking?

The 2009 regulation changes were meant to encourage overtaking during races. The FIA’s Technical Working Group came up with a raft of measures to achieve this goal. The result was the ugliest looking cars ever seen in F1, but this was shrugged of because of the promise of increased overtaking.

The verdict

In the first few races which were mostly held in overtaking friendly circuits, it seemed after three years of trying the Technical Working Group had made a breakthrough. A few fast cars failed to overtake slower rivals but that wasn’t seen as a real cause for concern.

But when racing moved to circuits were overtaking is more difficult, it became obvious that overtaking was still an issue. Faster cars were once again forced to pressure slower cars into mistakes to overtake. Other than that, pitting earlier than planned was the only other high percentage alternative.

This was due to the age old problem of modern F1 cars inability to close up to another car in dirty air. So after three years FIA’s Technical Working Group had not yet found a remedy to the overtaking problem which was its key objective.

Why has overtaking not improved?

There are many theories doing the rounds but until this year's data is scrutinized, we won’t no for sure. There isn’t a silver bullet to identify the shortcomings of the new regulations. Every single theory has been disproved at least once already this season.

The KERS theory has worked to some extent but that hasn’t been very useful in race tracks that are not overtaking friendly. On a race track like Monaco or Silverstone KERS has not been such an obstacle to overtaking. The only advantage cars running KERS have enjoyed is their ability to fend off overtaking in natural overtaking zones e.g. the first corner.

The rear diffuser is another item singled out for discouraging overtaking. This theory holds no water because apart from Brawn who have a fast car, the rest of the diffuser gang have been overtaken more than once. This theory was also short down by Williams technical director Sam Michael in Simon Strang and Jonathan Noble’s article on autosport.com

Michaels said, "I don't think that has got anything to do with it," he explained. "Because a slot diffuser is just a down force-adding device so it's not really relevant. Cars are always going to have down force because they are moving so fast through the air. Unless you run the races in a vacuum!"

Are the 2009 regulations a total failure?

Despite the obvious drawbacks the 2009 regulations have not been a total failure. Because of the new regulations qualifying has never been this exciting in a while, with a lot of casual as well as seasoned F1 fans enjoying qualifying more than the race itself.

This has also led to one of the closest fields we’ve had in years, with even the Brawns having to fight. “It has been very exciting for both the spectators and us, sometimes too exciting,” BMW boss Mario Thiessen said. “You see almost every team going out on two sets of fresh option tires, even in the first knockout phase of qualifying, in order to make it into the second phase”.

So instead of recent suggestions to disband the Technical Working Group, they should be given more resources. Despite failing to improve overtaking, they have managed to drastically close down the field. Armed with new data from this season and hindsight, The Working Group will be better positioned to produce results.