I agree…races ought to be longer. I quite liked Champcars 1 hour 45 minuntes minimum race distance time limit.

Stable regulations for a number of years (minor tweaking apart) coupled with the most professional set of teams F1 has ever had is the reason for it. The big teams quickly reach the optimal solution and move the bar higher by smaller fractions each time, the smaller teams take a bit more time but get there – look at Force India. Plus, add in increasing restrictions like engine homologation too, as well as customer teams sharing data/chassis etc, and the great increase of personnel moving teams and taking acquired knowledge with them.

Having said that, expensive newfangled technology like KERS and wholesale aero reg changes for next year will spread them back out a bit, I suspect. But we’re not going to go back to the days of a gap of 10 seconds between pole and last on the grid.

An opposite argument would be that Bridgestone made the tyre targeting Ferrari’s needs, and that made the rest of the teams adapt to it and, therefore, fail to score decent lap times…

I don’t think you can point to Hockenheim as an example of how overtaking is improving, as Hockenheim is one of the few circuits that has a sequence of corners which allow for overtaking.

IMO the racing this year has been better mostly because of the weather variables rather than the close lap times.

Toyota – £220m ($418.5m)
Ferrari – £212m ($406.5m)
Mclaren – £210m ($402m)
Honda – £198m ($380.5m)
BMW Sauber – £186m ($355m)
Renault – £170.5m ($324m)
Red Bull – £132m ($252m)
Williams – £102m ($195.5m)
Torro Rosso – £42m ($80m)
Spyker** – £39.5m ($75m)

Approximate budgets for 2007. Assuming this is accurate, I think this may be one reason why Toyota didn’t do very well in Keith’s poll. Not much bang for their buck wouldn’t you say….

The problem is that the competitors wants one thing, and the governing body and the public wants just the oposite.

The driver wants to win the race for the largest gap (1 lap) and win the title as soon as he can. He and the designers wants turbos, active things (variable speedbox, wings, suspension etc…), slicks. and a F1 car that had an “unloyal” advantage,like Chapman did. A driver wants like Fangio to suprise the rivals, with a diferent strategy, stop the car and change tyres, refuel (in a time no one do that) change glasses, take a cup of tea, and overlap the others again.

The Governing Body and the large public wants the emotion to be pemanent until the end like a Bingo game.

I think the reduction in gap in 2007 is owing to a combination of engine supply (big teams to the smaller ones), smaller team buy-outs and the single tyre supplier. And the recent crop of the fresh new talents, most of’em seem to be race winners, provided a good car.