F1's big 2017 weakness is exposed again

For all the majesty of Spa-Francorchamps, for all that it offers more overtaking opportunities than most circuits, still - for no reason I can easily put my finger on - it too often serves up a race that falls short of expectations, and last Sunday's was no exception.

Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, the two world championship protagonists, made the Belgian Grand Prix weekend their own, both driving beautifully as they qualified - and finished - one-two. And yet...

There was a moment with 10 laps to go, immediately after the post-safety car restart, when they went through Eau Rouge as one, and on the following straight, up the hill to Les Combes, briefly ran side by side, but that was the only truly mesmerising moment in a duel that ran from start to finish.

Despite the fact that Hamilton and Vettel were at no stage more than a couple of seconds apart, their battle, while tense, was ultimately frustrating.

"He was waiting for me to make a mistake," smiled Hamilton, "and I never did."

True enough, for although both drivers agreed that the Ferrari had a slight edge on the Mercedes, in effect the matter had been settled 24 hours earlier.

"If I'd got pole," Vettel said, "it would have been a different story," and he was right, for then it would have been Hamilton who was marooned in 'dirty air' for an hour and a half.

As it was, save on the restart, Vettel could never get within 0.999 recurring of Hamilton, and that - in today's Formula 1 - is the magic figure, being the trigger for DRS. With use of the system maddeningly beyond his grasp, Vettel could only stare at the back of the Mercedes: those who dreamed up this latest iteration of grand prix car had made sure of that.

Don't get me wrong, I understood why there was a desire for change. Since we moved into the world of hybrid power units, the cars had necessarily put on a huge amount of weight, becoming lazy great things that quietly lapped seconds away from 10 years earlier, and were - by common consent - too easy to drive.

Something had to be done to - forgive me - 'Spice Up The Show', and that meant speeding up the cars. Heresy in the time of Max Mosley, perhaps, but viewing figures had plummeted, and needs must.

Granted, there wasn't much awry with the sheer horsepower on offer from the terrifyingly expensive and complex engines, but at the same time nor was there anything to be done about their horrendous weight.

The visible veil of dirty air has blighted motor racing for more than four decades

Therefore, if speeds were to go up, Formula 1 could either increase brute cornering speeds, or - as Patrick Head always advocated - forget any need to justify its existence, in terms of 'improving the breed', and revert to lighter cars, with loud, conventional, engines.

The former path was - of course - the one followed, for, apart from anything else, the FIA would never have countenanced a move away from hybrid technology. Therefore the ill-named F1 Strategy Group put its heads together, and imaginatively came up with 'wider tyres and more downforce'. Duh.

Had they never heard that fundamental truth of motor racing, that 'more downforce' means 'less racing'? Apparently not, but the drivers had, because they're at the sharp end, and - although they're never consulted about anything - they know about these things.

In February they began testing the new generation of cars, finding them more enjoyable to drive, but lamenting that overtaking would be even more difficult than before. And no one - save perhaps those in the Strategy Group - was surprised.

At Spa, therefore, Hamilton and Vettel circulated endlessly, never far apart, but always separated by the invisible veil of dirty air that has blighted motor racing, in varying degrees, for more than four decades now.

As expected, the 2017 cars are stunningly quick, but I must say I watched with mixed feelings, for this emperor of grand prix circuits is patently no longer the supreme challenge it once was. How could it be when such as Eau Rouge, Blanchimont - even Pouhon, if you were in a Ferrari - required not so much as a momentary 'confidence lift'?

Long ago, when the safety crusaders were muttering about inserting a chicane before Eau Rouge, Ayrton Senna was outraged. "If you take away Eau Rouge," he said, "you take away why I do this."

At the time the switchback left-right-left could be taken flat - just - by Senna, Alain Prost and maybe a couple of others, but that was it. Now it is 'easy flat' for everyone on every lap, and I wonder what Senna would have thought of that. Actually, I think I know.

Indisputably, therefore, the latest cars have an ability to make corners go away, but if you're one of those paying to watch, this isn't necessarily to your taste, for spectacle, too, is an essential element, and maybe that explains why MotoGP, unlike virtually all forms of car racing, has not lost popularity in the recent past.

Tony Brooks memorably said that "a grand prix car should always have more power than its chassis can comfortably handle", but if it is 30 years since we saw that in Formula 1, the sight of a MotoGP bike still makes you catch your breath.

"If you take away Eau Rouge, you take away why I do this" Ayrton Senna

Last Saturday Marc Marquez - whom I always think of as Gilles Villeneuve on a bike - took pole position at Silverstone, and anyone who saw the heartstopping lap will surely have been blown away by Marquez's genius and staggering bravery.

It reminded me yet again that absolute speed is not the whole story, that 'edge' remains a crucial element in motorsport of all kinds. Marquez's lap - the first ever under two minutes - was more than half a minute from the pole lap at F1's British Grand Prix, but I know which will linger in the memory.

Motorcycle racing remains devoutly unpasteurised, and there's a lesson for Formula 1. Hope it registers with someone.