F1 wants faster lap times and more overtaking by 2017

It looks like whenever there’s a bit of downtime in the world of Formula One, some rumblings begin to gather momentum. Apparently, Autosport UK has learnt that Formula One’s technical chiefs have been tasked by the strategy group to make the cars faster and increase opportunities for overtaking in grand prix events.

Even Fernando Alonso, as reported by motorsport.com, has been quite vocal about changes needed towards tyre allocations in terms of choices of tyre compounds over the course of a season to ensure teams can get the best out of their car’s characteristics.

Now, it’s believed that the power brokers of F1 want to improve the spectacle by 2017 with cars lapping around five seconds faster per lap, and they hope the wider front and rear wings coupled with beefier rear tyres will do the trick.

The strategy group is apparently having a meeting on August 18 to review overtaking in general and how the number of moves per race can be increased.

However, Force India technical director Andrew Green believes that the design changes mooted for the 2017 season will not really improve overtaking. “At the moment we’re still very dependent on the front of the car generating down force for the whole car,” he said.

He believes that a complete rethink about aerodynamics is necessary in order to create a more exciting spectacle. “The effect of that is as a car approaches the one in front it doesn’t just lose down force from the front of the car, but the whole of the car, so maybe that’s something we will be looking at in the next meeting,” he added.

As of now, FIA has yet to formalise the regulations for 2017, which need to be put in place by March next year and cannot be altered after that. This has made most of the teams’ technical directors pretty jittery about what their future plans given the tight timeframe ahead.

In the meantime, do check out a great feature we have on in-car footage of Formula 1 cars from 1950 to 2015 as well or keep your racing skills sharp with simulator racing during the F1 hiatus to keep your spirits up.

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