The Future of F1 - Passing and Batteries?

Last week, Max Mosley released the results of a survey of F1 fans conducted via the FIA website. Turns out that 94% of those answering the survey thinks F1's biggest problem is the lack of passing, particularly for the lead. That finding led Dave Despain this weekend to proclaim that he is not alone, that millions of other "rubes" want to see fierce passing during each Grand Prix. Those "rubes" are setup as the yang to the yin of "true" F1 fans for whom passing is nice, but hardly necessary to their enjoyment of the races. Honestly, I think it's the very rare F1 fan who wouldn't want more passing than F1 has now. But there are fewer, probably not a majority of that 94%, who would get more enjoyment from F1 if it had so much passing that any individual pass becomes meaningless.

When Champ Cars used to run on superspeedways, the passing at the front of the field was almost constant. But that was due to aerodynamic tricks that made breaking away from the pack almost impossible and increased the power of the draft. To me, that just cheapens things.

Watching the GP2 races on Sunday mornings before the last two GPs confirms that modern open wheel formula cars can cut and thrust on the road courses that make up the F1 circuit. Can F1 adopt some of the GP2 car's areo setup to aid overtaking? It certainly should be looked at. It probably makes more sense than Mosley's bright idea to turn F1 into a series for gas-electric hybrids (with the batteries providing a version of Champ Car's "push to pass" system).