Opinion: Formula 1 Strategy Meeting

Tomorrow there will be an important meeting between the Formula 1 Strategy group and Formula 1 Commission tomorrow in Geneva. Among topics being discussed at the meeting will be 2017 technical regulations and also potential ways to shake things up in races such as reverse grids.

As far as the technical regulations are concerned I think it is important for Formula 1 to get this right. The current cars are not as exciting as cars of the past generation and I think this is one of the reasons for the declining audience. I think they should definately try to increase lap times along with making the cars visibly more difficult to drive. However, I don't think that they should increase downforce as much as some people are suggesting though as more downforce does mean it is more difficult to overtake. Either way, this meeting will be very important towards the future of Formula 1 because if an agreement is not made by the end of the month it is very unlikely that any major changes will be made.

Will we see Formula 1 cars that look more like this in the future?

The second part that will be discussed is ways of shaking up the races, with one of the possible ways being reverse grids. The way they would do this would most likely be to only invert the cars that made Q3 so the car with the fastest time would start in 10th and the slowest car would start 1st. The way they would encourage people to not sandbag in qualifying would be by having points available for qualifying. However, I think there are a number of problems with rules such as this. The one problem I can see occurring would be at tracks such as Monaco where overtaking is extremely difficult drivers may still sandbag unless there are more points available for pole then a race win. I think this would be something extremely difficult to explain to a casual fan why cars are purposely not setting a fast time. I also feel that this would be very poor for the image of the sport. Qualifying is supposed to be about which driver and car combination can be fastest over a single lap and anything that might take away from that would be unfortunate.

Will Lewis Hamilton have to start 10th after setting the fastest lap in qualifying?

Another problem I see with this that I feel this is purely a gimmick. I do not think anyone should be penalized for being the quickest car and driver combination in qualifying and should have to have a more difficult race because of it. The driver with the fastest lap in Q3 earned the right to start on pole and they should be able to keep it. I feel that rules such as this take away from finding out which car and driver combination was the best on the weekend and the whole point of sports in general is to find out who is the best. When rules such as this are implemented it brings the best closer to the pack where instead it should be everyone else trying to improve to chase the best. Rules such as this or double points used in 2014 only serve a purpose try to equalize the sport and I do not think anyone should be penalized for performing better than others.

What type of rules would you like to see agreed upon in tomorrow's meeting? Do you think the technical regulations need to be shaken up? Would you be a fan of reversed grids? Please share your opinion in the comments section below.