Less is more in F1, but Monaco is the exception

Max Mosley was right, wasn't he? His argument has long been that the fight for supremacy in Formula 1 is better when it evolves as a 200mph tactical chess game, where anticipation of an overtake is as exciting as the move itself. Grands prix like that are much better than races that play out like basketball games, where the moves ramp up so quickly that they ultimately mean little.

These opening five races of the season have been a real test of that stance - and for the racing morality of anyone who cares a jot about this sport.

We've had debate and argument about whether the use of the moveable rear wing - now labelled the Drag Reduction System - has taken away the purity of what F1 is all about.

We've had complaints that drivers needing to look after tyres so much on a Sunday was turning F1 into modern day endurance racing, rather than the fastest drivers in the fastest cars driving as fast as possible.

Yet the biggest conflict - and this is one that has played out hugely in my head too - has been: what is the perfect amount of overtaking in F1? What should motor 'racing' be about?

I must confess that I had arrived in Spain a bit despondent about it all. I'd had no complaints about the first few races of the season, but Turkey had left me pretty downbeat, if I'm being honest.

For all the record-breaking number of pitstops and overtaking moves in Istanbul, I hadn't found the race very exciting at all - and there were a lot of people in the paddock who felt the same.

Drivers overtaking each other with such ease that the cars ahead knew there was no point in trying to defend wasn't racing to me. F1 had turned into a very expensive Scalextric race - where cars were zooming around at their own pace until they had completed the required distance.

The casual fans may have loved the wheel-banging and the passes, but if all 20 races of the season were like that, would they still be as interested come the end of the year? The novelty factor may be good now, but how long would that last?

Think about it this way: if every day was like Christmas - with present opening, huge lunches and long boozy afternoons - how long before you too would be bored of it? How long before you wanted something different? March? February? January? December 26th?

In the days after Turkey I had my suspicions that what we witnessed in Turkey was not what a modern F1 race was going to regularly be like - it was actually the 2011 equivalent of a dull event. F1 had kind of turned on its head.

The huge amount of overtaking had not been because of the DRS or KERS, it had been caused by hugely variant tyre degradation - which had come from Pirelli's rubber perhaps not being as durable as it would have liked. Four stops had simply been too much.

In Spain, we saw a different race, and I absolutely loved it. It is up there with last year's Turkish Grand Prix as one of my favourite races of modern times - a total thriller of seeing the best men in the world doing their stuff to the best of their ability lap after lap in the pursuit of glory.

How sensational was Fernando Alonso with his qualifying lap and his start? How great was Sebastian Vettel in scything through the field when needed to, and not cracking under that tremendous pressure at the end? How brilliant was Lewis Hamilton as he set about in pursuit, and hats off to Jenson Button too in turning a different tyre strategy to his advantage?

And although Barcelona was a four stopper, the more durable hard tyre (compared to Turkey) meant that the Spanish race could play out over a longer period - allowing the anticipation to build up - once the craziness of the opening stints had been played out.

The Spanish GP was intriguing all the way © LAT

And while the tough time Hamilton had in getting past Vettel pointed some to suggest that the DRS zone had been a failure, I think they are wrong. The DRS played a significant role throughout the race - and it doesn't need to create overtaking moves to help.

Look at its benefit early on when it kept the chasing pack together - as Alonso could not break free from the wing-open Vettel and Hamilton.

DRS should never be about making overtaking easy - it should be about making passing not impossible. The balance worked - and we had Mosley's amazing chess game played out in front of our eyes. Less overtaking made Barcelona a great race.

Yet now I will totally contradict myself and state that Monaco will be better for being the other way around - because the more crazy possibilities it throws up the better.

F1 is heading into Monaco with the biggest strategic uncertainty it has ever faced - with the durability of the super soft tyre going to be key to determining how teams and drivers can go about trying to win the race.

The supersoft is going to provide just a single lap of peak performance - and may not last much longer than that in the race.

Some reckon the supersoft should last long enough to allow the top ten drivers who will have to qualify on it to emerge clear of the chasing pack after they make their first pitstops.

Yet not everyone is so sure. The doom-mongers reckon the leaders could be in as early as lap three for a change of tyres - which would put them behind the group of drivers from 11th downwards who will almost certainly start on the more durable soft tyre. With overtaking so hard, that's going to lead to a lot of drivers running around out of position.

Dropping back into the pack will not be bad if you can get through to the end of the race with the tyres you have got - as those cars ahead of you will eventually pull out of the way as they stop for the mandatory tyre switch. But what if everyone needs to make another two or three stops? The strategic possibilities are immense - and the chances of getting it wrong are huge.

But while such a crazy scenario proved to be a bad thing in Turkey, that is because overtaking and coming through the pack was too easy. In Monaco that will not be the case - even with the DRS.

Perhaps the leading drivers cannot afford to drop back into the pack? But what are the options? Do you sacrifice qualifying totally to keep tyres and start on the soft? Run on the soft in Q3 and risk starting in the middle of the pack. No one has the answer right now.

It is the very difficulty of overtaking around the streets of Monte Carlo that is going to make the event truly fascinating. We've got our chess match back again.

Mosley will be proud.