Guenther Steiner feels ‘overtaking will always be a problem’ amid driver complaints of it being challenging in 2023
Drivers and fans have been complaining that overtaking is harder in 2023 than it was in 2022, but Guenther Steiner believes this will never be perfect.
Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner
The aim of the 2022 F1 regulation changes were to reduce dirty air, and as a consequence, improve overtaking without DRS. To some extent, last season, they achieved this goal. However, this year, many drivers have complained about the increased amounts of dirty air, likely coming from the new floor regulations, and the outwash elements on the floor of a lot of cars. There have been calls to change the regulations to improve this. Guenther Steiner, though, is having none of it.
The FIA has also elected to shorten DRS zones – they did so in Australia, Baku, and Miami. This has further compounded the misery for many drivers, as overtaking is was even harder without it. The races themselves weren’t terribly entertaining, except Australia, which was entertaining partly because of the many safety car restarts. As a neutral, there was not much exhilaration in the other two races.
Formula 1 is trying to close up the grid through the financial regulations (cost cap, etc.), and they’re also trying to make the racing closer with the current cars. But Steiner believes that overtaking will always be a problem. As per Speedcafe, he said: “Obviously, it will always be difficult with single-seater cars with big wings. Overtaking will always be a problem.”
Guenther Steiner digresses: Overtaking was ‘better’ in 2022
Most drivers generally seem to agree that overtaking was easier last year. Viewers, too, can see that. Guenther Steiner is no different. As mentioned before, the shortened DRS zones didn’t help. The Haas team principal said: “Sometimes it’s better. I think last year was better than this year, although we didn’t help ourselves with shortening the DRS zone in Baku. But it will always be difficult.”
He added: “You will never have a Formula 1 where overtaking comes at a delta lap time off of two-tenths (of a second). There always needs to be more. It’s just one of those things.” This may change in the upcoming seasons, of course, depending on whether FIA do/are able to take steps to improve overtaking.” However, he also pointed out that there were more entertaining races as well: “We shouldn’t jump to a conclusion.”
The Italian said: “We’ve had good races this year with overtaking. So we should look at them and try to replicate them, and not just be too sour about what happened (in Azerbaijan). Obviously, our expectations were high, that there would be red flags, safety cars, and nothing of that happened. But I’m pretty positive that if there needs to be something done, we will do it to make it easier again, but it will never be easy to overtake.”
Overtaking might be a problem, but the bigger problem for neutrals is that Red Bull are incredibly dominant right now. It doesn’t look as if this will change anytime soon, either. But there are still many things to look forward to. There is no clear backmarker team now, only a neverending midfield. Some team can have the upper hand one weekend, only to disappoint the next weekend. Towards the top, the fight between Ferrari, Aston Martin, and Mercedes will be interesting to watch.
In case you missed it:
- Jealous of Aston Martin’s 2023 performance, Kevin Magnussen urges Guenther Steiner and Co. to deliver
- Guenther Steiner asks F1 fans to be ‘patient’ as he backs rivals to curb Red Bull’s dominance
Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)