F1 or Formula Bore: with few overtakes, the focus shifts to Saturday, according to Ferrari and Frédéric Vasseur. Four races, four wins from pole position: Lando Norris in Melbourne, Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri in Shanghai, and Max Verstappen in Suzuka. The performance levels among the cars are similar, clean air is increasingly important, and the key to victory is now qualifying.
It feels like going back years, when Formula 1 was made up of long (and boring) processions. The rules designed to encourage overtaking no longer have an effect, as we reach the final iteration of the current ground-effect cars. With gaps increasingly narrow, helped by the “convergence of performance,” finding a gap to make a move is becoming ever rarer.
In the last four races – including the Chinese Sprint Race – there have been no overtakes for the lead. There was more action in Melbourne, where the weather conditions mixed up the running order and led several drivers to make mistakes, but already by Shanghai, Formula 1 had cooled off. The race just concluded in Japan, then, hit rock bottom.
Starting in front to win the championship
All is not lost for fans of on-track battles. Over the course of the season, there will still be circuits that favour wheel-to-wheel duels. However, it is absolutely beyond doubt that qualifying, this year more than in past seasons, matters more than race pace. A dynamic also acknowledged by Frédéric Vasseur, Ferrari’s team principal, as he awaits the upcoming updates from Bahrain.
“Qualifying is certainly crucial to performance,” explained the French engineer, as reported by Autosport. “The smaller the gap between the cars, the more this holds true. When you’re in a pack with other cars, you’re fighting both the one ahead and the one behind. Yes, it’s probably a qualifying championship.” – the French manager explained at the end of the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka.
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