The Final Stint: F1 and overtaking - 'Something's got to change'

It may seem odd to some that Lewis Hamilton could say it was "impossible" to follow, and therefore pass, at the same Brazilian Grand Prix which saw Max Verstappen turn in a candidate for overtake of the season.

Had it been true of the entire field the Brazilian Grand Prix could have been the worst race of the season, but it was saved from mediocrity by the late flurry of drama in the final two stints -- another reminder of the viewing benefits of races where two- and three-stop strategies are possible.

But the difficulties in following another car should not be doubted just because the runners towards the back had more success than Lewis Hamilton. It has not been uncommon this season (or for the past 20-odd seasons, for that matter) to hear one driver complain about the loss of downforce from being in the dirty air of a car in front, often forcing the man in question to drop back in order to consider a later attack or an overtake through strategy.

The proposed rules revolution for 2017 is targeting lap times "five or six seconds" faster than they are today, with wider, more aggressive-looking cars to improve the spectacle. The changes are a direct response to the perceived lack of speed of the current formula but also hope to address the concerns laid bare by Hamilton at Interlagos.

It is not insignificant that Nico Rosberg has recently placed great emphasis on the charge down to the first corner. The German called it the most important part of his race and certainly all his wins bar Monaco this year have hinged on being the first Mercedes into Turn 1. This is not to take the credit away from Rosberg -- he was simply quicker than Hamilton in Mexico and Brazil -- but being the lead car is significant, especially when the man behind is in identical machinery and on an inflexible strategy, such as the one afforded to the second-placed Mercedes driver.

In the post-race Brazil press conference Sebastian Vettel explained why passing a man in the same car is difficult.

"On paper [Brazil] is one of the easiest tracks to overtake," he said. "Sure, if you're behind you always want the DRS zone to be longer because artificially it allows you to get closer. Naturally if you are only a tenth or two quicker, then it is very difficult to pass, whereas if you are a second quicker it becomes more easy."

The "tenth or two quicker" he refers to is not DRS, something Hamilton had time and time again in Brazil but was unable to get close enough to actually attempting a pass on Rosberg. When Mercedes refused to budge on his strategy, Hamilton was forced to settle for second and the fans were denied the chance to see a Bahrain 2014 style duel, on that occasion triggered by alternating strategies and tyres for the lead pair.

However, it is important to note, unlike Bahrain last year, the soft was not the better race tyre at Interlagos, explaining why Mercedes went soft-medium-medium-medium for both drivers after seeing the quick degradation of the soft tyre on the opening stint. It is difficult to see what Hamilton could have done differently on strategy to win the race without a game-changing safety car in the final stages.

But the tyre point is a crucial one when considering the other battles in Brazil. Verstappen's passes were thrilling but came as Sergio Perez and then Felipe Nasr struggled with their rubber. Without a similar point of difference in the battle for the lead with an identical car, Hamilton's only hope was to beat Rosberg through pit stop strategy.

There is a constant juggling act going on for rule makers. On the one hand, there is a desire for cars to be fast through corners, requiring high levels of downforce. However, the knock-on effect is that the turbulent air coming off the rear of one car has a big impact on the downforce of the following car. Once airflow has been contorted by the rear wing and diffuser of the car in front, the car behind no longer has the clean airflow that its wings and bodywork are designed to run in. After the race Hamilton said he, without "perfect aero", was unable to move into overtaking range of Rosberg, who did have "perfect aero", and this is what he was referring to. Even with DRS this crucial loss of downforce meant Hamilton was ultimately not able to get close enough to challenge for the lead.

This line is what the 2017 rule changes will have to find, as Vettel went on to explain.

"In general what we need to follow another car in medium-speed, high-speed, slow-speed corners, is more mechanical grip, so shift the percentage between aero, mechanical towards more mechanical. How to do that? I think we need better tyres that allow us to go quicker, the drivers want to be quicker.

"The solution is very simple unfortunately the sport is very political with different interests from different people. I think it's fair enough to give whichever tyre manufacturer, in this case Pirelli, the chance to improve their tyres, what we need to run. But since the responsible, the teams, whoever, can't agree on something it will be difficult to make progress.

"Unfortunately the people paying for that are the ones sitting on the grandstand. We would love to go quick, I'm sure they would love us to go quicker and have more excitement, but bottom line is, if you look 10 years ago, 20 years ago, it isn't like there was a lot more overtaking in the race so it isn't a disaster what we see now."

The final word should go to Hamilton, who insisted something needs to change.

"At the end of the day it doesn't really matter what we say because it won't happen, the big bosses make the decisions and whether they've been the right ones for many years, who knows. But something's got to change. At some races you can follow, which enables you to have some good racing, places Austin which was the last decent race. But other places it's just ...

"For fans it's probably not too exciting to watch. Obviously it's nice when you are at the front, as we have been for some time now, but still being able to race, and also down the rest of the field, is what the fans want to see so that's probably a change that will probably be looked positively on."