Watching the Brazilian GP and pondering about overtaking in general, it seems to me
that it is time for the FIA to redefine the rules about competitors overtaking and
being overtaken.

I would suggest that the "Schumacher chop", so expertly demonstated by Webber (and
others) yesterday is one of the things discouraging some drivers from even trying to
overtake. This innovation came with MS, but he is no longer racing so why is it
still tolerated, instead of being banned outright? (In my view, it should never have
been allowed in the first place)

Although I fully realise that F1 is not now so much a sport as a business, so there
can be a lot of pressure on a driver to finish well, the practice of chopping off
fellow competitors flies in the face of true sportsmanship and fair play and, in my
view, overtaking should not be subject to this sort of blocking, Why not ban the
"Chop" and require drivers being overtaken to adhere to the racing line, with the
overtaker being allowed to overtake if he is fast enough, clever enough, brave
enough, and can safely find a way through without endangering other competitors?

JB's drive yesterday proved that overtaking is possible, at least on some tracks,
without resorting to what are in effect dirty tactics.

There is also a case for improving those tracks where overtaking is simply not
possible and in fact it would be nice for tracks to be rated with a minimum of say
four overtaking opportunities before they are allowed to stage an F1 event.

No doubt at the beginning of such an overtaking regime there would be some mishaps,
especially from newbies, and all drivers would need to learn what is acceptable and
what is not when passing and possibly be discouraged from attempting blatantly
foolhardy manouvers, but it is for the FIA to come up with a set of clearly
understood rules on passing, and for the stewards at events to enforce them. (It
would be good if the different stewards at different Grand Prix all sang from the
same hymn sheet too!)

Am I dreaming, living on another planet, living in the past, or does anyone else
agree with me on this one?

I think drivers are scared to overtake really as the slightest slip up will lead to a drive through or a grid penalty next race so drivers err on the side of caution or rely on KERS

They should scrap this "blame" shit and let the drivers go balls out and go for it without fear of sanction, only thing that should be sanctioned is deliberate Jerez style ramming

Maybe the FIA should make the cars have mirrors that are big enough, are usefull and be placed in the best position for the driver rather than used for aero tweaks or used to create extra bits that is then classed as a mirror support.
The way you see some mirrors shake on the onboard cameras they just can't be of any use.

IIRC Champ Car banned blocking and stewards punished the violation without hesitation. Of course it needs competent and consistent race control. Under current F1 system (Max appoints his poodles to jury) we will have endless controversies until a big bang occures.

Once upon a time I remmember comentators stating that a driver would make his car a few inches wider when they were under attack from a car behind and that was very true a driver would position there car to take up just a little more room on the track particularly around corners. Now of course we see drivers weaving back and forth even on the straights sometimes in a life threatning manner. We see drivers being forced onto grass when there's plenty of room and an aggressive style of driving that should only be used in the demolition derby.
That is not racing to me, good overtake moves are ruined by un-sportsman like behavier and overtakes are not attempted because of the dangers of the prat in front swinging out and taking out a wing or worse.
We see more drivers using pit stratergies to pass the driver in front instead of running the risk of passing on track and although it's not all the fault of aggresive blocking it certainly reduces position changes on track, something we are seeing less of and is ruining the sport.
Why it should be fine for the FIA to accept one blocking move is beyond me since in 90% of cases that's all it takes to turn the sport in to the boring procession that we regularly see and as we saw in brazil can ruin someones race.
Blocking is something you do in boxing, overtaking is something you do in racing and that's something F1 lacks.

Remove DDD, and you'll have your overtaking back.

I think Senna was the chop king, although Michael took the startline ones to crazy levels and got away with it.

So long at the FIA is as corrupt as it has become under Mosley and Balestre, the good ideas the OP expresses will never come to be.

It may help but I doubt by much, I don't remmember seeing much overtaking at the start of season between the non DDD cars.

Besides aero has nothing to do with drivers preventing overtaking by over aggresive defensive moves.

They key to overtaking is not the track design; Tilke's tracks are full of supposed overtaking opportunities, but usually produce borefests. Its down to conditions and speed differentials between cars - e.g. Suzuka and Silverstone are usually very dull racing-wise but in the right circumstances in 2005 and 2003 respectively they produced classics. Same with Brazil this year; a jumbled grid and green track produced another great race.

The most extreme way to do it would be to put sprinklers on all tracks, as wet weather varies braking distances. But this is obviously out of the question.

There is only so much we can do to aerodynamics short of 100% spec cars, as designers will always find a way round rules. So I propose:
- Steel brakes instead of carbon - should vary braking distances somewhat more than carbon brakes.
- Low-grip asphalt on tracks (such as the A1 Ring used to have, which always produced good action).
- KERS time per lap to be increased to make it beneficial for all cars to use, so it is used as an offensive device rather than defensive.

I remember Schumis move on Montoya at Imola, in Tosa. I thought it was disgusting at the time. At Interlagos I thought Webber did wrong, but it did not upset me much. I am probably getting used to it. "Try and overtake me and I put you in the grass/wall/sandtrap/whatever" seem to be an accepted attitude now. It is also almost exclusively cars that tries to overtake that is punished. So, yes, I agree with the OP, something should be done, but I do not agree that there should be a rule against defensive driving. I think the rules are clear enough on overtaking:
-Move once, once only
-Leave space on track
-Do not "crowd" an opponent (push him towards the edge of the track)

Apart from that there is the gentlemens agreement that they should not move in the braking zone.

So nothing needs to be really changed from a regulations point of view, it just need to be brought up properly on a drivers meeting where Charlie say "No ****ng swerving or I have you make so many drive troughs that your pit limiter will write a letter of resignation".

Watch the Oz gp

all cars at the start were non dd except 3.there wasnt any overtaking involved when the nondd cars were following one another..

yes the regulations have allowed them to follow more closely than before but there isnt any overtaking all the same..

they need more OWG styled windtunnel testing.more testing,false hypothesis rejected(like last year) ..better regulations...better racing

The old (and dangerous) circuits provide overtaking, the modern safe ones dont. Simple as that. Dont say ground effect cars handle line astern, but there was overtaking then. Tilke is more to blame than the cars

May I ask when you started watching F1?

Sure it does. Those stupid wide front wings are so fragile and can cut a tyre so easily, drivers get nervous about coming within metres of another car.

The one time we get close racing like Hamilton and Barrichello, a slight brush gives a puncture.

Fragile bodywork and fragile suspension discourages close racing, because it usually ends up with one/both persons effectively out of the race.

There is a lot more corner aggression in Indy or Champ cars due to the steel suspension and narrower wings.

Obviously after the Senna-Prost era.

The point of my previous post was that if the FIA put a stop to aggresive blocking we will see more overtaking and less damaged wings coming into the pits and since there would be a lesser threat to a driver losing part of his car when trying to overtake then a driver will have a little more confidence to try and overtake.

But I think you do make a valid point, if the cars weren't so fragile then a little bump here and there wouldn't right the car off.