On why Formula 1 has always been boring

Formula 1 motor racing has always been boring. You can almost count the number of wheel-to-wheel races between truly evenly-matched cars on the fingers of two hands. When you're in a meritocratic situation, regardless of the sport, this will usually be the case.

Nevertheless, whilst there are no "solutions" to the problem (people always want "solutions", for whatever reason), there are a number of things - the majority of which could be quite easily changed in time even for the next race in 10 days time - that would spice up the on-track action immeasurably.

1. Circuits

Think of some examples of classic F1 duels between completely equal cars. Now disregard Nigel Mansell passing Ayrton Senna in Spain 1991 - Mansell's car was easily better and streaked away once it got the lead. Now disregard Gilles Villeneuve and René Arnoux at Dijon in 1979 - Arnoux's car was hobbled with engine trouble.

What you will be left with is some dusty old footage of Formula 1 from between 1950 and 1970, essentially the pre-aerodynamic era of the sport, which may prove a significant point later on. Consider the classic slipstreamers of the Italian Grand Prix, or Jackie Stewart and Jochen Rindt's race-long duel at Silverstone in 1969, or Mike Hawthorn side-by-side with Fangio for mile after mile at Reims in 1953.

The common factor here is not car design, nor aerodynamics - both Stewart and Rindt and the classic 1971 Italian Grand Prix came after the advent of wing technology. It is circuit design. Fast, flowing circuits allow drivers to race one another. I'll repeat that. Fast, flowing circuits allow drivers to race one another.

Had the 2010 season started at Interlagos, Brazil, for example, or at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montréal, all the bellyaching we are currently enduring could have, at least temporarily, been avoided. Put it simply, give the drivers a track where they have a realistic chance of racing one another and they will do so. Bahrain's Sakhir circuit is yet to produce a classic Grand Prix, and with its new fiddly, bumpy, eight-turn addition is even less likely to in future.

We'll get to Sepang in three weeks and it'll rain, the racing will be outrageous and all this will be forgotten. Until we arrive in Barcelona. Then it will be forgotten again after Montréal. At no time will anybody ever think of blaming the circuits. They're so modern. They're so safe. The garages are so roomy. The air-conditioning in the press room is just-so. And so it goes on.

2. Aerodynamics

To the credit of the Technical Working Group, they tried this. But Formula 1 designers are relentlessly clever. However, the simple fact of the matter is that, even at the first race of the new era in 2009, three teams turned up with a device that completely shagged all the efforts to spice up the racing. The double diffuser makes it more difficult for a car to follow another car closely. It's as simple as that. Get rid of it and things will immediately get better.

Whilst they're at it, someone could perhaps have a look at the bewildering array of feathers and bells that have started sprouting out of the front wings again and get rid of them, too. Simpler aerodynamics leads to greater reliance on driver input. More driver input equals better races.

3. Tyres

Nice and easy, this one - remove the tyre restrictions. Yes, I know Formula 1 is trying to be seen to be cutting costs and saving the environment. But at the moment it could be risk of doing both of these things in the best possible way, by making itself obsolete.

Give the drivers back their 14 sets for the weekend for starters. Next, remove the silly rule about having to run both compounds during the race. This removed a vital tactical variable - you can't expect to ban refuelling and then effectively railroad all the teams into using the same strategy and still expect exciting races.

Finally, allow the drivers to choose from all four compounds of tyre - super-soft, soft, medium and hard - at every race, using whichever ones they choose and starting on whichever ones they choose. Maybe some cars or drivers will, over the course of practice, realise their optimum race time would be given by 2 stops on a soft tyre. Others will find it's one stop on the medium, or running non-stop on the hard. Additional pit stops and different race programmes will mix up the field, put slow cars trying to preserve their tyres ahead of the sprinters. The overtaking and excitement this would produce is as artificial as during the refuelling era, but it is still overtaking and excitement!

4. Pit lane

To assist with 3., raise the pit lane speed limit. OK, there are safety implications to this, and in some places - Monaco immediately springs to mind, but also places like Valencia - it would be entirely impractical to the point of recklessness. However, increasing the limit during races to 100mph would lead to shorter pit stop loss times. Shorter pit stop loss times would, in turn, make aggressive tyre strategies more tempting and achievable for the teams.

Ultimately, it has to be remembered that Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motorsport. The finest designers, working for the best teams, producing bespoke cars for the world's greatest racing drivers. It's always likely to be two-by-two processional fare a lot of the time. If you want to be entertained by motor racing, watch the British Touring Car Championship. It's certainly what I do.

But it will never stop me from loving Formula 1 the most.

Formula 1 2010 - new rules

Last year's regulation overhaul changed the way Formula 1 looked, both in terms of aesthetics and in terms of grid order. This year's changes are hopefully set to change the way it works. I'm focussing on the rules that may make a difference to the on-track action here, but you can find a full list of the alterations here.

Chief among the changes for 2010 is a ban on mid-race refuelling. It's been 17 years since Ayrton Senna won the Australian Grand Prix halting only for tyres. In the intervening period, I think it's fair to say that refuelling and pit strategies have only added any value to a sport they were designed to revitalise on a handful of occasions. The most notable of these to my mind was Michael Schumacher and Ross Brawn's strategic masterclass victory in the 1998 Hungarian Grand Prix. But therein lies the problem - even at its most exciting, the fuel stop era was about drivers running alone as fast as they could, to overtake rivals in the pits.

Whilst there's no guarantee that running on a single tank of petrol will serve to give the sport its long-saught answer to the overtaking on track problem, it cannot fail to help. Put simply, it removes a tactical variable for the teams and drivers to lean on. Come half or two-thirds distance in Bahrain, any drivers wanting to gain a position will have far less options than before. The ones they do have - staying out, preserving the car and hoping other drivers stop for fresh tyres, or a quick stop for new rubber ready for a late-race dash - can only benefit the action on the track, which is most likely where it belongs.

A lot of talk regarding this rule change has been about who the change will most favour. Certainly, smooth drivers like Jenson Button will probably receive a slight advantage over their rougher counterparts like Fernando Alonso or Lewis Hamilton. It's possible, too, that old hands Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello - the two drivers in the field to have driven Formula 1 pre-1994 - will enjoy an experiential advantage in the season's initial races. However, over the course of the season I think these things will become moot. The best drivers will always be the best drivers, and what makes a great driver is understanding that one has to adapt to win.

The greatest joy of the new fuel regs, however, is that qualifying is back as an ultimate test of speed. No more silly fuel-burning phases with cars starting the top-ten shootout on race fuel. Every session will be run flat out and on fumes, as it should be.

Another welcome change is to the points system, which has long been a bugbear of mine. Finally we're back in a position where a race win is properly awarded, the 25 points on offer are a clear 7 more than for the second-placed driver. The argument is that this will give the drivers extra motivation to try and make the pass, but I've never been a great subscriber to this view - I think that the majority of drivers are always looking for another place. Working the percentages is for the end of the season, but in 2010 the framework is in place for fortune to favour the brave.

Finally for the positives, aerodynamic wheel covers are banned for 2010. This won't change the racing on the track any, but it will make the cars look a lot less stupid. Plus, it may also help shave off vital tenths during the tyre stops. During pre-season, most of the teams have been changing all four wheels in 3-4 seconds, meaning that pitstops this season will be more spectacular than ever and that strategic elements have not all been vanquished from the sport.

The effect of all of the above changes will hopefully be a season where the best of Formula 1 is retained, but in a more transparent and understandable way to the casual fan. No-one could see how much fuel someone had on board their car, but everyone can understand what a new set of tyres will do. Likewise, KERS should also bow out this year, F1 never really finding a way to exploit both its benefits and its entertainment value in a balanced way.

Alas, the sport will have to wait until 2011 for a change which will hopefully really spice up the on-track action. The double diffuser row from last year looks set to rumble on into this, with Mercedes set to turn up in Bahrain in a week with their ominous-sounding Super Diffuser. The ins and outs of this may be very interesting from a design and regulatory standpoint, but for spectators the only real effect is a reduction in the quality of the racing. Trick diffusers were outlawed in 2009's rule package, aimed at improving the chances of overtaking, because they made it difficult for one car to follow another closely.

Formula 1 is lucky to have such an array of brilliantly talented engineers that such rulings can be cunningly circumvented. However, Formula 1 fans deserve a lucky break too. Hopefully this will be the last year for these devices. Equally, though, here's hoping that it will not prove a politically divisive issue until the start of 2011. Formula 1 fans had enough of that last year, and not enough of anything else.