Gary Anderson: The simple fixes for F1's flaws

Formula 1 has been my life for more than four decades and it's a great sport. But something needs to be done to make it more appealing to both the casual viewer and the enthusiast, particularly with the way the rules work.

I watched the complete Hungarian Grand Prix weekend - practice sessions, qualifying and the race. While it had some exciting moments, particularly qualifying and the first kilometre of the race, it was basically as dull as ditchwater.

F1 doesn't seem to want to help itself. The regulations are a mess and so inconsistently policed that to the outside world it looks like a joke.

So F1 needs to help itself with the way the regulations work.

My first infuriating thing: track limits.

This is becoming a random regulation, implemented on a whim and so inconsistent that it makes no sense. The TV replays keep cutting to cars running wide over the kerbs, but for what? Very seldom was anyone penalised for going outside the track limits.

This needs, as with any regulation, consistency. It needs to be implemented during all sessions, including the race. Drivers don't do it unless it's potentially faster or there's a gain to be had by there being less load on the tyres.

Again, everyone involved is confused, including the TV commentary teams, so how does the viewer have any idea what's right or wrong?

My suggestions:

1. Forget about track limits and let the drivers use as much extra width as they want to. They'll all do it and at least then it will be consistent.

2. Instead of painting the kerbs with what's called high-grip paint, paint them with something slippery. The drivers will soon learn - as they do when it's wet - to stay away from the kerbs.

Next, radio communication.

Again, this is such a badly implemented regulation that it makes F1 look more like Fred Karno's Circus. I'm in favour of limiting outside assistance for the driver, but when it comes to safety concerns that's a bit different.

And again, the commentators spend most of the sessions debating the issue, and they haven't got a clue what's right or wrong because of the complexity involved. Simple is the best way forward, and I'll use Jenson Button's brake problem in Hungary as an example of how easily this can be dealt with.

Button knew he had a brake problem and informed the team. After that, the engineer told him not to shift gear, and then we never heard another thing. Was it a miracle that it fixed itself?

Braking problems are dangerous and this requires a certain amount of communication between team and driver.

As I suggested a couple of weeks ago, the FIA is now trying to make the team have open dialogue with the driver while in the pitlane.

It's a simple idea and should work as follows:

1. If the team sees a problem on the data that has reliability or safety implications, it would be irresponsible not to do something about it. The team should call the driver into the pits, a request that he must obey. While driving through the pits, he can be informed of the problem and what to do to rectify it. You could even change tyres, effectively making this an extra pitstop.

2. If the driver discovers a problem, he can inform the team at any time. If it's OK to continue, then he will be told carry on, but if the team feels something needs to be done about it, it can call him into the pits on the same basis as above.

In both of these situations, the engineers' instructions must be carried out by the driver and the fix can only be implemented in the pitlane.

This could be carried out simply and effectively and it would not reduce the viewers' entertainment as they'd still hear the radio traffic. It's just that some of it would now take place while the car is in the pits.

The next area of trouble is yellow flags, and - more importantly - waved yellows.

As qualifying showed, not even the drivers understand what these flags mean. Lewis Hamilton's and Nico Rosberg's interpretations seem to be vastly different - and they drive for the same team!

If this doesn't get sorted soon then we could very easily see another incident like the one that caused the death of Jules Bianchi.

If it's left to the driver to make the decision, then it will be end up like the badly-policed track limits - someone will always try to take that bit more of an advantage.

I suggested after the Bianchi incident that a virtual safety car speed limiter was put in place, similar to the pit limiter. It would keep everyone at the same speed and remove that good or bad-luck situation that we currently have, where a driver's track position has such a big influence.

More importantly, it would mean that a car going through a section of track where an incident had taken place would have its speed reduced automatically.

The control speed could be set at any level, but for immediate implementation why not just use the pit-limiter speed?

How would this function?

1. When the car passes the first yellow flag, the driver presses a button on the steering wheel. The car then reduces its speed to that pre-set limit. Simple.

2. When he passes the first green flag he switches it off, which is even simpler. This way, the speed through an incident zone would be at the same level for anyone. So no pointing the finger after the event. Making sure it was done at the correct time can be checked very easily if there's any dispute.

My final problem is with the way fans are kept informed by the TV coverage.

The information that comes up on screen is not adequate. Tyre choice, for example, is not displayed well enough given how significant it is to the car's performance.

With such a mix of tyres available to the teams, the TV graphics need to display what tyres were on the cars when drivers set their lap time. It's also vitally important for a qualifying session when the weather is changeable.

In Hungary, the tyres that were available were the medium, soft and super-soft, wets and intermediates. And during the weekend all of these were used.

During practice sessions and qualifying, the tyre used needs to be displayed beside the time in the left-hand column on the screen.

It could just be that the time is displayed in the tyre colour, or it could be a blob beside the time - red for super-soft, yellow for soft and so on; this could also be done for wet conditions - blue for wets, green for intermediates.

This would give the viewer so much more information and insight, meaning they might even start to enjoy witnessing the challenge of teams making the correct decisions.

The commentators have this info, but they don't actually use it. I have yet to hear a commentator say what tyre a car was on when the driver did their lap time.

If anyone needs confirmation of this, just listen to the first 10 minutes of the commentary of practice three from Sky. If it's complicated for them - and they are in situ - how in heaven's name can a normal viewer have any idea what's going on?

As Alan Jones said on the grid, viewers want to see racing and not politics. How right he is.

Hopefully someone in power will read this and realise that the success of F1 is in their hands, and that it's not impossible to make the sport a lot more understandable to the viewing public.

If this is not done, then the numbers will keep dropping and sponsors will become even harder to find. For the teams, that would be a disaster.