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Why would slicks help overtaking? Surely they'd increase corner speeds, and therefore reliance on aero

Slicks could improve mechanical grip and therefore _lessen_ aero reliance.

Overall, the whole slick argument is kinda weak, though, grip has never been higher than during tire wear times. A slick tire coming from Bridgestone would for sure not generate more grip, but about the same by choosing a different compound. Otherwise the FIA would cry "safety, safety" again.

The only argument pro slicks is looks.

But whilst there is more mechanical grip, it would just allow the cars to go even faster, causing more aerodynamic 'dirty air', which means the following car, despite having numerically more 'mechanical grip', would have to leave a bigger gap.

Slicks are not the answer to overtaking - look at the 90s and you'll see they hardly overtake either. F1 NEVER has. It's what happens when you have the best drivers in the best teams, with the fastest people at the front in qualifying. Anything to 'improve' overtaking will be fake. Fast cars don't have a problem overtaking slower cars when they REALLY want to. The trouble isn't the cars, but the pitstops. FORCE them to pass on the track. Then you'll see more, simple.

Quote from tristancliffe :

The trouble isn't the cars, but the pitstops. FORCE them to pass on the track. Then you'll see more, simple.

maybe going back to qualifying with a low fuel load (full race fuel in qualy was the most stupid idea ever) and driving the whole race with a single tank of fuel might get rid of a lot of the pitstop passing

Exactly. Fit slicks, but for image reasons rather than anything to do with overtaking. Get rid of pitstops, use low fuel qualifying, and consider grid reversals like in touring cars (where a pick of a name decides how far back reversing goes).

i dont think completely getting rid of pit stops will work with the race lengths driven in f1 or rather to make it work youd need to considerably reduce the mechanical grip pushing the balance back to a strong reliance on aero grip yaddayadda i think you can see where this is going
but just changing the tyres and getting rid of all the fuel load trickery should make pit stop times much more consistant

and reversing the grid is just a silly idea that might lead to loads of gambling by going slower during qualy
im afraid few passes is just the nature of a sport thats so dependent on budget and to some degree luck in making good development progress which always leads to dominance of one or two teams most of which tend to have a favoured driver

another thing that might help promote passing is to heave finishing first back to where it was with the old points system
with what we have now a 2 point advantage over comming in 2nd just doesnt make pushing further all that important

To make F1 more interesting you need more equal cars. Less reliance on electronics. Better quali system. A rules system that doesn't change for every race. Imho, it might be a good time to get rid of that damn old points system where the winner gets 10 points. Give the winner 20 points and let the top 12 finishers score points. Fire max and bernie.