Almost every driver has given their view in recent weeks about the racing controversies in the United States and Mexico grand prix. Kevin Magnussen, who is stepping down as Haas F1's regular driver after the season, has an idea on how this can be avoided.
No doubt everyone within Formula 1 agrees with Magnussen's perception of the current racing standards. "I think it's pretty messy, the way things are at the moment. I think the FIA is aware of that and looking to make changes. They can see that it’s not great at the moment. There's too much room to exploit these guidelines. They need to rethink it a little bit, go back to basics," he states.
Is there even a solution? Magnessun shares his view, "The tracks make it incredibly hard because there's all this run-off and you don't even feel you go outside. So racing each other, it's too easy to just hang on to the outside and then you try and have your front wing ahead at the apex and again at the exit. Then try to make it look like you got pushed out. So it's all like it's not real. You're trying to make it look certain ways rather than just trying to get past."
Magnussen knows the solution
This the root of the problem, according to the Danish driver, "If you don't get far enough ahead, the inside car will have the natural power to push you outside. Whereas if you get ahead enough on the braking and into the apex, he just won't be able to push you outside. He will damage his front wing and stuff. So there is a natural dynamic to racing that I think should excel and take the lead in this case. Whereas now, because of the tracks, we have to put all these different guidelines and rules in place and I just think that's a shame."
"So gravel or some natural deterrent turned on the outside of the track is gonna just help. On those tracks I think they should just leave it to the drivers. Have a few rules like moving under braking and reacting to movement from the car behind. I think that's going to need to be there. But the big problem is the tracks," Magnussen said.
This article was written in collaboration with Jenny Garnett.
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Of course today's circuits allow for this and understandably so. The circuits are privately owned or owned by motorsport clubs. They wish to maximize revenue and so they have runoff areas and very distant guard rails to allow for other race series to use them safely, such as MotoGP and such. Gravel and guard rails means no Moto GP and its corresponding revenue. Instead of complaining about the runoff areas, how about reducing the size of the cars to something they ran in the 1990's, reduce the downforce, and decrease the cars' braking abilities.
Exactly what I've been saying in the other article about unfair racing. The circuits allows this type of racing, even with penalties.
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