18/11/2010
NEWS STORY
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McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh has called on organizers at Abu Dhabi's Yas Island circuit to make changes in order to encourage overtaking.
Despite what was at stake - four drivers battling for the drivers' title - many saw Sunday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as a procession, albeit enlivened by the will he/won't he pursuit of Vitaly Petrov by Fernando Alonso and the question mark over the reliability of Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull-Renault package.
Yes, there were some overtaking moves - some of them quite brave - but not where it really mattered, and the fact that Alonso was unable to pass Petrov after 40 laps of shadowing his Renault perhaps says it all.
Now, Martin Whitmarsh, whose cars finished second and third, has called for changes.
"This circuit is a great facility and everything else," he said, according to the Guardian, "but as we saw in GP2 and as we saw in F1 it is almost impossible to overtake here, it is flawed in that way
"I personally would like to see it changed. If you look at GP2, it was not inspiring. I think it is a fantastic facility that we come to, but the end of the straight they need a wide challenging corner, not a chicane that has got one line through it, because it is impossible to overtake.
"You could see that when we first saw the plans. It did not look like this was going to be a circuit you could overtake on, and it has been proven. There is a massive commitment here to making this a great venue, so in the scheme of things priority should be given to looking at the circuit."
While Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management's chief executive, Richard Cregan, has said that Whitmarsh's suggestion will be considered, it is worth noting that other than the lack of overtaking, the track's design - like so many others these days - has another major flaw which is compromising the racing.
We are increasingly seeing ever more generous run-off areas which allow drivers who make mistakes to go unpunished. In Abu Dhabi, as at so many other circuits, drivers see the run-offs as just another bit of track to use.
On the other hand - for all the criticism - Monaco remains a circuit where drivers are punished, often heavily for the slightest mistake, something that goes down well with the fans and also encourages total respect from the drivers.