Formula 1 has been described as being in crisis, with dull races with little overtaking, a lack of characters in the paddock (when taciturn Finn Kimi Raikonnen is probably the most interesting personality, you know you’re in trouble) and a generally uncompetitive field, not helped by the recent dominance of Mercedes.

The current tyres, manufactured by Pirelli, where formulated to introduce a layer of strategy in races through rapid tyre degradation. There’s no doubt that Pirelli did a great job here, though I can’t imagine convincing one of the world’s biggest performance tyre manufacturers to design a “bad” tyre was easy. The unfortunate side effect of the rapid tyre degradation is that drivers cannot race flat-out for much of the race, forced to conserve the tyres to minimise pit stops and exploit the narrow optimal operating window of the tyre. This has had the opposite effect to what was intended, with many overtakes happening through the pit stop phase, further compounding the un-exciting.

Pirelli have recently been re-awarded the tyre contract for F1, but there are hopes that the tyres will be reformulated in the near future. This will be a welcome boost to the sport, but many more changes are needed to return to the sports heyday.