F1 Fanatic

According to the WTCC General Manager Marcello Lotti, the championship is considering introducing a ‘push-to-pass’ system in 2014 as part of new rules.

Further implementations will be studied for a later application, such as the ‘push to pass’ and a common hybrid system.

For sure, more details would be necessary to understand how exactly this system is going to work but basically I don’t think this is something that WTCC needs.

Firstly, one could say that there are already enough rules that make racing more artificial, such as the success ballast system and reverse grids. Secondly, we have seen a few great underdog triumphs over the last years of Chevrolet’s dominance, which probably wouldn’t have happened if the leading non-Chevy drivers couldn’t have defended their positions appropriately. Thirdly, I’ve never been a fan of these ‘overtaking devices’ that ‘spice up the show’ and it’s not like WTCC sees no overtaking.

What do you think of this? How does ‘push-to-pass’ systems work in other racing series, such as IndyCar?

I think these artificial things like push-to-pass, or DRS for that matter, are just the saddest invention motorsport has ever seen. They are forced to use these things because the number of viewers is declining – same thing that is happening to F1. Therefore, they think that if they can spicen things up with gimmicks like push-to-pass, the number of viewers will increase and their salaries will be paid again. A certain question arises: do we really want viewers that are interested in WTCC only because the cars overtake eachother unfairly?

As a sidenote – for the past two years or so, WTCC has been dominated by Chevrolet. But is dominance dull? I rather enjoyed watching the fights in the midfield last season. And this year promises to be more exciting than the previous seasons, so I really don’t see why they need gimmicks in the first place.

And who wouldn’t want more speed?