Robin Frijns, columnist for FORMULA 1 Magazine, thinks that F1 could learn something from WEC. “Overtaking in F1 is no longer very skillful, it has to be exciting: will it succeed or not?”, he writes in his column in the latest edition of the magazine.
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‘These are crazy weeks. Especially in the world, but also in our motorsport world. Formula 1 is at a standstill for a moment and for us – and by that I mean in this case the WEC drivers – the season start was also postponed until this month in Imola. This instead of the traditional opening in Qatar. Fortunately, there is plenty to race, like crossing swords with Max Verstappen on the Nordschleife! So I am entertained.
Although? That simulator, huh, it’s part of your job, but I was and still am not a fan of it. I’m not really good at it either. At least, good enough, but others are really better at it than I am. It must be the age, haha. Still, I can recommend everyone to watch WEC races once. Or go there, for example to the race at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Quite an experience, really. Especially for those who at this moment are definitely not fans of the way things are going in Formula 1.
Enough has already been said and written about all the regulation changes and their impact, both leading up to the season and during the first three GPs and the past weeks. Fortunately, the FIA and F1 together with teams and drivers want to do something about it. But really being able to completely fix these mistakes? I’m afraid they won’t succeed.
It also has everything to do with, for example, the previous generation of cars. A few years ago they became wider, you could say clumsier. Circuits were then adjusted. Take Australia, where a chicane disappeared. And the Abu Dhabi circuit is also such an example. There too a chicane disappeared, everything had to be smoother to make those cars work.
But: with the cars and regulations you have now, you see the disadvantages. Honestly, on tracks like those in Hungary or Monaco you will get some nice races. Because normally not much happened there, now it probably will. You saw it immediately in Melbourne in the first race: there was a lot of overtaking. Only in an artificial way and that’s where the problem lies.
Learning from other classes
A successful overtaking maneuver can be compared to how it goes in the animal kingdom: a lion hunts prey, but may only get one chance to catch it. So it is sharp, alert and carefully chooses its moment. Then it is exciting: will it succeed or not?
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In Formula 1, from that perspective, the same lion doesn’t have to be so sharp at all. There are enough chances to catch that prey. If it doesn’t succeed now, then later it will. And so an overtaking maneuver is no longer exciting or skillful.
It will be clear that I am NOT a fan of this way of racing, just like Max Verstappen and many others. Pure racing, no, that’s not it.
In that respect, F1 can learn quite a bit from the WEC. Because in LMP1 there was also once a mistake made regarding regulations. Long story short: it resulted in an expensive development war between Audi and Porsche. I think they made a somewhat similar mistake as in those LMP1 times.
Fortunately, that was resolved. In Formula 1 it will take time, you can’t just turn everything around. But I am glad that I race in classes where you really have to have a chance for an overtaking maneuver and you have to take it. We do have a battery in the car, but not to overtake someone with it. Fighting with each other, that makes it exciting.
Hard fights. That’s what people want to see, right? But those are no longer there in F1 in this way, as a driver you know a chance will come anyway. In the WEC, but also in GT races like on the Nordschleife, it’s different. Feel free to come and watch, I would say. Everyone is welcome!’
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