Nigel Roebuck: Fifth Column

This was the third Turkish Grand Prix, and at last the penny has dropped with me: stay in Istanbul, by all means, and go to the race, if you wish, but do not - under any circumstances - attempt to do both. Every trip to and from your hotel makes a breeze of tackling the M25 on Friday afternoon.

Istanbul may be an enthralling city, and the Istanbul Park circuit (curiously named, given that it is nowhere near Istanbul) sensational by contemporary standards, but by the time I flew out of Ataturk Airport on Monday morning, I felt the profoundest wish never to visit either again.

What I'm trying to say is that the traffic problem in this part of Turkey is beyond insufferable, which is why Istanbul Park may be the first grand prix circuit in history to have its own escape committee.

All of which is a shame, because the facilities are excellent, and the track itself, as I said, stunning. That being so, it was unfortunate that, on the heels of a predictably soporific afternoon at the Hungaroring, an inordinately dull race followed at Istanbul Park, where overtaking - supposedly - is possible.

For the simple truth, look to Kimi Raikkonen, who may not be the most loquacious of men, nor possessed of the clearest diction, but one who skips the varnish, says what he thinks, and couldn't care less if his opinions offend. Why, he was asked at the press conference, had he suddenly, on the penultimate lap, cut loose with a lap more than half a second faster than any other in the race?

"Well," said Raikkonen, blearily, "it's so boring behind other cars... Unfortunately, in Formula 1 these days the races are pretty much decided in qualifying, so... it was something to do - I said I'd do it after qualifying. I just wanted to find out how quick the car was..."

At the Hungaroring, where he also finished a close second, Raikkonen did much the same thing, this time on the very last lap. Something to do.

A former colleague, who was not involved in the writing of race reports, came increasingly to attend the practice and qualifying days, then do a runner to the airport early on Sunday morning, and get home in time to watch the race on TV.

This policy used to baffle me, and I would seek explanation: how could he miss the race? "No problem at all," he'd reply. "Easy drive to the airport at that time, half-empty aeroplane, watch the box in my sitting room, rather than the press room, and miss the traffic jams getting out of the circuit. No-brainer..."

If Raikkonen is right, perhaps my pal was ahead of his time. In terms of points, the 2007 world championship may be the most closely fought for many years - how long is it since we had four possible champions, with the season two-thirds done? - but when it comes to raw excitement, at the moment the last five minutes of qualifying invariably have it over the 95 minutes of 'racing' which follow on Sunday afternoon.

Raikkonen, sad to say, is right - and if it's boring for him, with 800 horsepower at his back and 5g corners pulling at his neck, it's unlikely to be stimulating to those who merely watch - and, directly or indirectly, pay to watch.

As Kimi dared to use the B-word, I thought back to last year's British Grand Prix, in which his McLaren finished third, behind Fernando Alonso's victorious Renault and Michael Schumacher's Ferrari. Unquestionably, these were the three best drivers in F1: they had qualified 1-2-3, too, and ran in fairly close order throughout the race.

After it, though, Michael spoke for everyone: "The aerodynamics are so crucial that there's no way to stick close to another car at a high-speed track like this. As soon as you get close, you start sliding around. Today was a lonely race for Fernando... okay, there was a bit of action between me and Kimi, but it really wasn't that exciting, was it? And it's been like this for a long time."

Raikkonen echoed his words: "Everyone would like to see more overtaking - but since I've been in F1 it's been like this..."

Kimi, it's safe to say, has a lower boredom threshold than the majority of his colleagues. In a recent interview he conceded that he had been born 30 years too late, that he would have been much more in his element in times past, when the emphasis was more on the driver, less on software and windtunnel.

I don't think uber-technology and 'strategy' quite do it for the Kimster, whom I always think of as a Gilles Villeneuve sort of racing driver, who simply wants to go fast, and beat the rest - and unquestionably would prefer to do that on the track, rather than 'on the stops'.

As long as we're stuck with refuelling, so inevitably we're stuck with the prevailing mentality of gaining places 'on the stops'. In this era the word 'strategy' has taken on a wholly different meaning.

It struck me recently that the FIA's setting up of an Overtaking Working Group is akin to a situation in which FIFA decided on the need for a Goal Scoring Group. It is often suggested that modern circuit layouts are responsible for the lack of overtaking, but at every grand prix weekend we see plenty of it in the GP2 races.

Everyone remembers Lewis Hamilton's astonishing drive through the field in the Sunday GP2 race at Istanbul last year, but a performance of that kind would have been out of the question - even for Lewis - in the grand prix.

Can't be right, can it? Formula 1 is supposed to be the top of the tree, motor racing in its purest, most exalted, form.

Next year the standard ECU arrives, a welcome development for those of us who believe traction control has no place in something calling itself 'grand prix racing'. Already, though, there are complaints from some manufacturers and teams that the device is ill-mated to their engines, and will make racing much more dangerous.

This was to be expected. When the FIA banned ground effects (and those ridiculous 'skirts') at the end of 1982, initial tests of the suddenly naked cars brought 'undriveable' comments from the hapless pilotes.

That lasted a few weeks, after which they simply acclimatised to this new breed of F1 car, and got on with it. Exactly the same thing happened at the end of '93, when the FIA banned (or thought it had banned) traction control for the first time. Boo-hoo for a week or two, and then heads down and get on with it.

The Overtaking Working Group, one would like to think, is considering every aspect of the problem which currently exists in F1. Getting rid of traction control is a good first step by the FIA, but, as Bernie Ecclestone says, it is also time to rid the cars of what he inimitably calls, "All these horrible-looking bits and pieces they stick on everywhere.

"Look at the GP2 cars: they can race like F1 cars used to - because they can really tuck up behind another car in the corners. With the F1 cars, as they've been developed, it's impossible to do that - if you really get behind someone, you lose your downforce..."

I wish the Overtaking Working Group well, for their proposals, whatever they be, will inevitably face swingeing criticism and opposition. If some of those in the paddock took a moment or two to consider the feelings - the requirements - of those who pay to watch their cars, that would be a breakthrough in itself.

Considerably higher admission prices were responsible for a small crowd at Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix, but those who stayed away this time really didn't miss very much.

Ask Kimi Raikkonen.