Lewis Hamilton has revealed that he questioned the FIA over its lack of initiative in trying to make the racing better at Formula 1's Qatar Grand Prix.
After a weekend where overtaking proved incredibly difficult, the Lusail circuit layout's limitations in allowing cars to follow closely, plus an ineffective DRS zone that many felt was too short, were laid bare for all to see.
Hamilton reckoned that the track was now up there with Monaco as "probably the worst race for us to go to" - which contrasts with its high-speed challenge being something drivers relished.
What made the situation most frustrating for Hamilton is that the problem of a lack of overtaking in Qatar is not new and was obvious from previous races at the venue.
So he did not understand why the FIA had chosen to do nothing ahead of this year's race rather than making tweaks to the DRS zone or pitlane loss time that could have helped spice things up.
"In the drivers' briefing, I asked them the question: 'You saw last year there was no overtaking. So why have you not, for example, increased the DRS zone?'" said Hamilton, who finished 12th.
"They were like, 'Oh, um, we haven't thought of that'. I'm like: 'What are you doing?'"
Hamilton reckoned that there were several elements of the layout that could have been tweaked to open up excitement, rather than turn the race into a procession.
"The [time spent in the] pitlane is 26 seconds," he said. "If you go to the end of the pitlane, there's a long space that's just unnecessary to be there. So you can pull that earlier. It starts super early too, so you could squeeze it down to be shorter.
"It's probably the worst race for us to go to when you can't overtake, and it’s such a beautiful place and really well-hosted. So they've got to come up with some other solution."
Hamilton was not alone in thinking that the DRS zone should have been altered, although part of the problem behind the limited number of overtakes was also down to there being no hard braking zone.
Mercedes driver George Russell said: "This is an amazing track to drive, but impossible to get within the DRS [of another car and pass it].
"The DRS is too short and the first corner is too fast. You need a slow corner to have a zone of at least 100m to be able to dive in. But the braking zone is 40m."
Carlos Sainz, who finished on the podium, reckoned reprofiling the final and first corners would be the best solution to opening up overtaking possibilities.
"Everyone wants to keep coming back to Qatar, and Qatar wants to host better racing," he said.
"There is no DRS next year, so we can forget about that - but I think there is potential with the space around here to maybe make the last corner tighter.
"You could take it maybe more far away, and keep going straight after Turn 15 so there is a hairpin entering the main straight.
"Maybe also a tighter Turn 1, where you need to brake a bit more, kind of like Austin style.
"But I don't know. We always suggest things. We always have ideas around track design. We just don't know if the circuit has the capacity or the FIA has the capacity to make these changes."
Revisions to the circuit are unlikely to be made in the short term, however, especially because F1's 2026 cars could throw up a completely different spectacle.
With overtaking next year more about energy deployment, with the abolition of DRS and its associated aero boost, that could open the door for passes in unusual places.
Plus, next year's cars will feature new aero regulations that should allow cars to follow much closer than they can at the moment.
As revealed by The Race last week, the current generation of cars retain just 80% of their downforce when 20-metres behind a rival. This is down from 95% at the start of the current ruleset.
Early CFD data from the FIA predicts that cars will keep 90% of their downforce at a similar distance in 2026.
But Lusail's VERY different in MotoGP
Simon Patterson
It’s remarkable as a MotoGP fan to hear the F1 paddock lament Lusail as somewhere where you can’t overtake, given that it’s got a reputation in our world as somewhere where you generally get pretty awesome racing - and where the final corner in particular delivers exceptional last lap deciders.
That perhaps shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, mind you, given the different dynamics of bikes versus cars,, and how the layout of the desert circuit (built, let’s not forget, by bikers for bike racing, with F1 a late arrival) affects that.
The straight, too short for F1’s DRS this year, is just the right length to set up a slipstream overtake on a MotoGP bike, and the finish line is just far enough along it from the last corner to make the run to the line exciting.
Fast and flowing corners leading into slower turns mean that bikes with different strengths can be fast in different places, and as it's a wide track by MotoGP standards you can run different lines through those corners.
Even MotoGP’s own aero era hasn’t significantly changed that, either, unlike a lot of other circuits, with close racing still very much the norm at Lusail.
