Todt: Lack of passing a price worth paying for better F1 cars

One of the downsides of the new generation of F1 cars is that drivers have found it much more difficult to pass their rivals.

Lewis Hamilton went as far as suggesting after the Australian Grand Prix that the current situation was the worst he had experienced in his 10-year F1 career.

"It is fundamental to the way the cars have been since I've been in Formula 1 but it's probably worse now than it's ever been," he said about overtaking difficulties.

"It's definitely not going to be better – it's going to be the same for the rest of the season."

Speaking to selected media ahead of the Australian GP race, Todt acknowledged that there was likely to be less passing in 2017, but did not believe that it was something too negative for the sport.

"Overtaking has always been a problem in motor racing," explained Todt. "I remember races 20 or 30 years ago, when a car with fresh tyres that was three or four seconds quicker could not pass a car with old tyres, because overtaking was difficult.

"Clearly we can figure out that overtaking will be even more difficult this year. But we have tried to find ways to make overtaking easier with DRS and other technologies.

"Maybe the new regulations will make overtaking more difficult, but maybe it was the price to pay by having wider cars with more aerodynamics."

The FIA is set to reconsider the length of DRS zones after the Chinese Grand Prix when it has a better idea about just how difficult overtaking is.

Todt has also suggested that longer term maybe F1 needs a rethink of its aero concept to ensure that future cars can follow each other more closely.

"It's something that we need to address when we are going to speak about future regulations, about whether it is a good compromise."