Ross Brawn hopes Formula One can work towards a set of regulations where the effect of aerodynamics on overtaking becomes more benign.
In his new role as managing director of motorsport, Brawn is responsible for putting forward the commercial rights holder's vision for the future of the sport. He has said he wants to work towards a "perfect world" formula over the next five years, in which multiple teams are competitive and on-track racing is closer and more exciting.
The new set of technical regulations for 2017 appear to have had the opposite effect, with the gap between the top two or three teams greater at the opening race in Australia than it has been for some time. Meanwhile, the new aerodynamic regulations for 2017 have been designed purely with the objective of making the cars faster, with little consideration for the impact they might have on wheel-to-wheel racing.
Brawn admits F1 cannot do away with the aerodynamic element of the sport, but believes it should start tweaking the rules so that the impact on overtaking is understood.
"When we talk about aerodynamics, I think we have to recognize these cars are incredibly quick because they use aerodynamics and if we want cars as quick as this and as spectacular as this then we can't just turn the aerodynamics off," he said. "I think there's a view that we should get rid of the aerodynamics and have big, wide tyres and then get the grip mechanically and then we can go back to cars racing each other. We can, but they will be a lot slower than most of the single seater cars that are out there.
"So I think we should embrace aerodynamics, but in a different way. We should work out how we can make the aerodynamics as benign as possible so cars can still race each other. That's never truly been done."
Brawn plans to set up a research group within Formula One Management (FOM) to better understand what can be done to improve racing.
"I think if you look at the configuration of the aerodynamics we have, we've got cars now with very complicated bodywork structures which create very sensitive flow regimes around the structures which as soon as they are disturbed by the car in front, suffer.
"So can we come up with a set of regulations and a concept where we can still use the power of aerodynamics to give us the speed and the spectacle of the cars but in a more benign may so that they can at least race each other more closely without having that impact. So that's my ambition, that's my objective and as I've said we're putting a team together within FOM to look at those ideas, with some substance.
"We want to work with the FIA and we want to work with the teams and use the resources of the teams and use the support of the FIA and the direction of the FIA to try and achieve that. So just talking about that relatively narrow topic of aerodynamics I don't think we should view it as something we've got to get rid of, because we won't, we never will. Can we turn it on its head and say we need it because we want fast cars, but can we structure it in a way where it's much less damaging for cars to race each other.
"I've heard it said that some of the cars out there do race each other quite well with large aerodynamic performances -- the sportscars for instance and IndyCars at the moment are not suffering so badly -- so I think a proper campaign, concerted campaign would definitely take us in the right direction on that, I'm convinced of that."