FOM working with FIA to improve racing

09/06/2017
NEWS STORY

Speaking at today's press conference which featured the three leading lights at Formula One Management, aware that everything depends on the quality of the racing, FOM's sporting boss Ross Brawn revealed that he is working closely with the FIA to resolve a number of issues not least the difficulty in overtaking.

While he feels that the challenge from Ferrari this year has improved things, coming after almost three years of total domination by Mercedes, he believes there is much room for improvement.

"If I am honest, we have been very fortunate this year in that we've had two teams that are battling it out so strongly at the front, and I wouldn't like to claim any credit for that," he said. "But I think with the real recognition that there has to be some work done to consolidate that for the future.

"There is a slightly worrying gap between the front and the middle of the field that we need to pay attention to," he admitted. "We are still starting to understand the behaviour of these cars with regard to how well they can race each other. We have just initiated our aerodynamic programme to have a look at the design of these cars and see what we can do in the future to make them more race-able. That is something we are doing with the FIA, we are starting a research programme."

However, the Briton was keen to play down talk that the main focus will be overtaking.

"I don't want to call it an overtaking working group, because that is not what we are looking to do," he said. "We are looking to create a group that can look at the design of cars presently and in the future to make sure they are race-able, because the feedback from the drivers is it is difficult.

"We know that we rely on the aerodynamics for performance of the car," he continued. "There is a slightly naive view that we should get rid of the aerodynamics and then everything will be wonderful. The fact is it won't be as spectacular and they won't go as fast as they are if we get rid of the aerodynamics. There is no way of just putting on bigger tyres and hoping you will go as fast as they will.

"So we need to retain the aerodynamics but we need to do it in a way that makes the cars more race-able. You cannot guess that, you have to do work to establish it.

"I don't think we are taking anything for granted," he insisted. "We are fortunate that we have got some great racing going on, and we need to make sure we can do that more consistently in the future."

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Published: 09/06/2017
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