Jeremy Clarkson Suggests F1 Get Rid Of Tracks Where Overtaking Is Difficult

It has been a strange start to the Formula 1 season because through four races — three Grand Prix and one Sprint Race — we have had four different winners.

Now, normally, that would mean that this season, like last season, was extremely exciting and unpredictable, however, all of those races were won by the driver who qualified on pole and featured limited overtaking.

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This has some worried that we're in for a dull season going into some significant technical and engine regulation changes for 2026, but famed British TV presenter and former host of Top Gear Jeremy Clarkson — a massive Formula 1 fan — had a suggestion for how to help promote overtaking after a DRS train-plagued Japanese Grand Prix.

It's a simple, albeit controversial, solution.

Now, there's some sense to that. Some tracks are known to be far more difficult to overtake. Take Monaco, for instance. It's about as iconic a track as there is in all of motorsports, but if you want to see some incredible overtakes and wheel-to-wheel action, look elsewhere.

But here's the thing that a lot of people noted when countering Clarkson's argument: the tracks for the most part are unchanged, it's the cars that have gotten bigger, heavier, and have more complex aerodynamic features to them which can result in more turbulent air that makes following the car in front much more difficult.

However, Clarkson continued to argue that the series should use tracks that suit the cars.

I see where he's coming from, but I'd rather see F1 figure out ways to make the cars more raceable than to start scrapping some iconic circuits from the schedule.

Suzuka is a great example. There has been some incredible racing over the years, and last weekend's race was an outlier. 

So, while I get Clarkson's point — and maybe to some degree F1's selection of tracks needs to evolve — let's try to fix the cars first, and hopefully that will happen next season.

Written by
Matt is a University of Central Florida graduate and a long-suffering Philadelphia Flyers fan living in Orlando, Florida. He can usually be heard playing guitar, shoe-horning obscure quotes from The Simpsons into conversations, or giving dissertations to captive audiences on why Iron Maiden is the greatest band of all time.