Australia GP missing 'vital ingredient' of overtaking - Ross Brawn

Formula One's managing director of motorsport Ross Brawn has admitted that the Australia Grand Prix at the weekend was missing one of the sport's "vital ingredients" in overtaking, as there were only five overtakes following the first lap in Melbourne on Sunday.

The presence of a Virtual Safety Car led Sebastian Vettel to take advantage and win the Grand Prix over Lewis Hamilton in an unconventional season-opener. However, Brawn reckons fans missed out on more action due to the lack of overtake manoeuvres.

"One vital ingredient was missing, namely overtaking, as there were really very few passing moves in this opening round," Brawn explained.

"It's vital that the cars are capable of getting close to one another and racing wheel to wheel. When there is only a small speed gap between two cars then it's almost impossible for the pursuer to get close enough to mount an attack.

"We saw that with [Lewis] Hamilton and [Sebastian] Vettel, Verstappen and [Kevin] Magnussen and again the Dutchman and [Fernando] Alonso and with [Daniel] Ricciardo and [Kimi] Raikkonen.

"Think of how much wheel-to-wheel dicing we missed out on. Formula 1 fans want to see a better show and overtaking is the most exciting and spectacular element you can have on track."

Brawn, who currently works for the owners of the sport, Liberty Media, says that the organisation is committed to making overtaking more prominent in the sport than it currently is, with new measures set to come into play in 2021.

"Until we take a structured approach to the problem, we won't really make any progress," he added.

"One of our aims, which we are looking at with the FIA and the teams is that, for 2021, we want to have cars that allow drivers to really fight one another on track."

Liberty's plans for F1 have been polarising at best, with one of their main proposals suggesting that engines could be standardised in 2021. Ferrari and Mercedes, in particular, are against the plans, and have repeatedly threatened to quit the sport if compromises cannot be reached.