The Chinese GP proved reversed grids will work

The Chinese Grand Prix was probably one of the best Formula 1 races we've seen in many years.

In order to guarantee fans the action they want in the future, what needs to be done now is to examine why there were battles raging right through the field throughout the race.

Being able to select from three tyre compounds has added to the spectacle, especially as the softest option was quick but very lap-limited. I'm not sure this will be the case at all races, but it does mean there's more room for a team and driver to take a gamble.

The purists won't agree - some of them probably very vociferously - but the Chinese GP showed the impact reversed grids could have on F1 racing.

Up front, we did have Nico Rosberg winning by a country mile from pole position. Even though he made a poor start and dropped to second before taking the lead when Daniel Ricciardo picked up a puncture, it was very much a normal race for him.

That shows us what the end result is when you put the fastest car and driver combination up front. It's exactly what we have to expect from the current format.

Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, and to a certain extent Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel after their first-corner collision, as well as Ricciardo after his puncture, showed that it's possible to get a good result from down the order.

Yes, it would be different if the grid was in reversed championship position (for starters, qualifying would be unnecessary unless you wanted to award points for it). All the fast cars would be starting together and it would ensure there's not one quick car out front, as there was with Rosberg in China.

If you ask any of the drivers involved in coming through the pack, they'll say they enjoyed it. Hamilton probably didn't relish it so much because he was carrying some damage from the incident at the start, but in general they will embrace the challenge of having to race hard and overtake.

Crucially, it will also ensure that whoever wins the championship will be a more complete driver. It won't simply be about taking pole position and executing a good race up front (in itself not easy), but the best driver will have to combine speed with discipline, planning and overtaking prowess. All the qualities that fans want to see in their heroes.

The other thing reversed grids would do is force the teams to design and build cars that are more effective in turbulence. This will also create better racing.

Currently, you can simply go for the best aerodynamic specification that produces the most downforce. Do that right and you start on pole and disappear into the distance.

Red Bull and Mercedes have done that for the past six seasons and, unless I'm very much mistaken, it's happening again this year.

We've heard Hamilton complaining many times about how difficult it is to follow and pass another car. But this problem is self-inflicted because the teams have all built such a well-optimised aerodynamic package for when the car is not in traffic. In turbulence, the car suffers.

To achieve that kind of performance, all the aerodynamic surfaces are working to the maximum. And when a car in front affects the airflow going across these surfaces, they lose more downforce than the cars that don't produce so much in clean air.

Everyone suffers with this problem, but the fastest cars suffer that bit more.

If we did have reversed grids, we'd also need the kind of stewards that were on duty in China during all the races. There was a fair amount of contact at the first corner, but both Daniil Kvyat and Vettel got away with it, while in Bahrain Valtteri Bottas was penalised for a very similar incident.

POTENTIAL RUSSIAN GP GRID

1 Rio Haryanto
2 Esteban Gutierrez
3 Felipe Nasr
4 Pascal Wehrlein
5 Jenson Button
6 Fernando Alonso
7 Marcus Ericsson
8 Jolyon Palmer
9 Sergio Perez
10 Kevin Magnussen
11 Carlos Sainz
12 Nico Hulkenberg
13 Valtteri Bottas
14 Max Verstappen
15 Romain Grosjean
16 Daniil Kvyat
17 Felipe Massa
18 Kimi Raikkonen
19 Sebastian Vettel
20 Daniel Ricciardo
21 Lewis Hamilton
22 Nico Rosberg

Now wouldn't that be interesting?

It would also give those who have lost out for whatever reason in the early races of the season the chance to fight back. But it would even out over the year.

And it would not mean that the slowest cars will win races on any normal circuits. The only track that could make things interesting would be Monaco, but what a race that would be!

Two power unit problems in the first two races for Ferrari, and Mercedes having a gearbox change after Bahrain and a power unit problem during qualifying in China - both on Hamilton's car - shows these teams are right on the limit.

There are many components to the current power unit packages, so when an engine builder has to start troubleshooting it can detract from routine development.

During pre-season testing, Mercedes seemed to be bulletproof. That, combined with its speed, led to most journalists writing off the season as a Mercedes benefit.

The driver can't really influence reliability. Yes, they can be a bit heavy-handed with the systems or abuse the cars over the kerbs, but in general as long as you keep the car on the black stuff, reliability is down to the team. And the electronic failsafe measures should catch and identify small problems before they become big ones.

It was also good to see qualifying revert to the 2015 system. It really did mean we had a cliffhanger right up to the end of the session - even after the chequered flag was waved.

It's a pity Hamilton wasn't there to add another pole-position contender to the mix, but his power unit problem in Q1 meant the grid was bookended by Mercedes cars. That's a very different kind of lockout to the usual Silver Arrows one!

What did concern me in qualifying was the situation Jenson Button highlighted when a circuit safety vehicle was positioned directly in the run-off area at the last corner.

If someone had suffered a brake problem approaching that turn, or made an error in pit entry, the consequences are unthinkable.

After Jules Bianchi's accident at Suzuka, the virtual safety car system was created for just this type of scenario where drivers need to reduce their speed with immediate effect.

But it wasn't used, and for a driver to have to come on the radio and alert their team, and hence the FIA, means someone wasn't doing their job.