Mario Andretti: F1 should follow Indycar's lead to improve overtaking

After a widely criticised race on Sunday, which many people have described as ‘boring’, 1978 champion Mario Andretti believes F1 have got it wrong and should take hints from Indycar racing.

The first race of the Indycar season saw a record number of overtaking, compared to the measly five we saw on track at Albert Park.

Any motorsport fan will tell you that overtaking is the most exciting part of any race, and Andretti says: “They’re (Indycar) doing the right thing with the aerodynamics of the cars and coming back to more of a pure-looking single-seater, open-wheel car which I think was something all of the open-wheel aficionados wanted to see.

“They’ve reduced the downforce of the car which is an element, they still gave them good downforce with the ground effect because it does not create turbulence.

“But with the smaller wings, you can stay near the guy’s gearbox and you can have a competitive overtake.

“I personally think that’s where F1 missed it, they gave them more mechanical grip with wider tyres that gave them bigger weights which created more turbulence.

“And by doing bigger wings, they shorten the braking points even further which almost eliminated the chances of overtaking.

“You have DRS and all that, which you really need more than ever now, but at the same time even with the DRS, you’ve got to be able to such up to somebody’s gearbox coming off a corner and you cannot use DRS until you’re on the straights.”