That means not only giving up places to him but also taking points off other drivers.

It doesn't mean giving up places to his rivals on the last lap.

Luca Badoer was a probably better number 2 driver than Massa, at least wouldn't have any pretence of being able to help the #1 driver...

First off, the disparity between the choices available to drivers in the first 10 grids slots and the rest.  Well they have no choice - they have to race what they qualified on (unless it's wet).

This is a very crude attempt at "spicing up the show" but is little better than reversed grids, for which there would be deserved outcry from fans, teams and drivers alike.  It's very artificial and really not needed, especially if drivers could actually choose their tyres themselves (see later).  At least when drivers had to qualify on race fuel, they all had the same freedom to either choose low tanks or their preferred weight of fuel.  Deliberately handicapping the faster cars is something F1 should not be doing.  What next, success ballast?

Second we have the requirement to use both types of tyres (unless it's wet).  With 4 compounds available, Pirelli only bring two to the race, instantly cutting choice by 50%.  Then the drivers who make it into Q3 know they pretty much need to use the soft/option tyres to avoid starting 10th. 

This virtually guarantees the race strategy for the first 10 cars.  Last year it was start on softs, switch to hards.  This year with the fast wearing Pirellis (on request of the FIA it has to be said), it's now start on softs, put on more softs, change to hards.

With everyone doing the same thing it's hardly surprising there's no big variations in speed between cars during the race and few position changes. There's just no room to manoevre.  If they could choose any tyres at any point in the weekend we might have some bigger differences between the cars during the race. 

Finally, if these tyre choice restrictions were lifted, and if Pirelli brought all their tyres to a race weekend (not just 2 sets) we might get some far out strategies such as someone trying to do a no-stop race (Perez we're looking at you!) and racing against someone doing 3 stops and using the super softs.  That would be pretty exciting but alas the rules prevent it.

To see how such a race might play out, take a look either at the 1990 French Grand Prix , the 1990 German Grand Prix or the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix below, all of which were pretty exciting in my view.

So really what are the current tyre rules giving us?  Predictable strategy, artificial racing and they make Pirelli look bad (unless it's wet). It's time to change the rules!

With the talk of 2011 now the prospect of more overtaking courtesy of adjustable rear wing and KERS, I thought I'd present my top 5 "vanilla" overtakes without the need for gimmicks.

In ascending order:

5. Alonso vs Heidfeld at Magny Cours in 2007. Perfectly judged by both drivers, absolute commitment and jaw dropping to watch.

4. Villeneuve vs Schumacher, Portugal 1996. Needing a win to stay in contention will championship leader Hill, Jacques found himself behind Schumacher in traffic. Taking full advantage of backmarkers, he got a run into the final corner and sat it out around the outside. Later Schuie told Jacques he shouldn’t have even attempted the move, and in an echo of James Hunt vs Mario Andretii at Zolder 2 decades previously, Jacques told him he’d damn well overtake wherever he liked.

3. Mansell vs Piquet, Silverstone 1987. A classic Mansell LAST 10 LAPS NEW TYRES MANSELL CHARGE, he made it all the more special by doing it in front of his home crowd.

2. Senna vs the world, lap 1 Donnington 1993. The embodiment of driver at one with his car, he made everyone else look like they were parked on the track. No matter how much I dislike most of his other “let me through or we’ll crash” overtakes, this was 2 minutes of pure genius.

1. Mansell vs Berger Mexico 1990. On fresh tyres, Berger caught and passed Mansell (himself on very worn tyres) with big lunge at the end of the straight which Nige did well to see coming. Having been woken up from his pretty average pace, our Nige proceeded to put on one of his famous late race charges although uniquely on used tyres. On the penultimate lap he sold two dummies and sold one up *the outside* of the 160mph banked final corner. Total fighting spirit.