F1 cannot continue trend of increasing number of overtakes in 2020
F1 News
- GPblog.com
The 2020 F1 season saw some spectacular races that will long be etched in the memory of fans. Unfortunately, these were all too often interspersed with downright boring parades in which, especially at the front of the field, nothing changed. This is reflected in the figures, as there was relatively little overtaking last year.
Less chaotic races in 2020
This is partly due to the enormous downforce that the cars produced in 2020. Because the FIA wants to limit the speed of the cars from this season onwards, the 2020 cars are likely to go down in the books as the fastest cars in F1 history. Partly because they have never generated so much downforce before. Indirectly, this meant that cars had difficulty following each other and were therefore unable to catch up with each other.
In addition, despite some peaks, there were less chaotic races in which fast drivers had to fight forwards. The race in which that clearly did happen: the Grand Prix of Portugal, in which the field was mixed up by a wet first lap, was the race with the most overtaking.
A calculation by Auto Motor und Sport shows that in 2020 an average of 31.4 overtaking times per race was made, compared to 38.9 in 2019, 32.6 in 2018 and 25.8 in 2017. The upward trend seen since the introduction of the wider cars has thus been broken. The average of 46.7 in 2016 (with the narrower cars) remains far out of reach.