Fernando Alonso has not yet seen the new cars overtaking easier than before in Formula 1. According to the two-time world champion, following has certainly become easier, but overtaking has not yet.
For Alonso, the weekend in Bahrain went well. He drove a strong qualifying in which he beat his teammate, but in the race he dropped a bit further behind. Due to three dropouts in front of him, the Spaniard ended up with ninth place and therefore two points.
Overtaking in F1
In the race, Alonso overtook several times and was also overtaken once, but it was still not easy. The Alpine driver said to Motorsport.com that following has indeed become easier, but overtaking is still not as easy as it seems on TV. Alonso believes that overtaking only looked so easy because the other driver had fresher tyres.
In Bahrain, tyre wear played a huge role and so someone on new tires could make up a lot of ground on the circuit. This was also a determining factor in the race in previous years. According to Alonso, we should therefore pay less attention to the cars, but more to the role of the tyres in the sport.
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That's what I've been saying.
The cars are very slow and clumsy under braking, easily disturbed by any bump in a braking zone. Seems very hard to be precise with these cars and easy to get a lock up.
The behaved and looked like Indycars in braking zones and slow corners
While Indycars have a lot of passing on ovals, on street tracks or circuits the passing is generally low quality or done under one of the half dozen pitstops.
I don't think the new regs have really worked. DRS seemed very powerful. The fact cars are so slow in low speed corners, means it's going to be harder to stay close to the car in front on tracks where the slow corners to on to the straights.
I feel like 2021 was the high point in terms of racing, drama, impressiveness of the cars.
I'm with you 90% on this one, and it underlines Fernando's point, that now that aero's are so poor, tyres and tyre choice, which are the same across all teams, will play a significantly increased role. Can only see how things pan out over the next few races
Interesting that in 2021 the hard compound was a pretty good tyre for the middle part of the race, whereas this year, it seems to be not compatible at all.
I liked the very different and bolder Tyre choices the different teams made during the race (more pitstops, more use of the softs), only made possible by the new compounds. I was a bit surprised teams are no longer able to pre-heat the tyres for a pit stop to a full operating temperature, but there again, that encourages teams to select reds more often because they offer far better grip so warm up on track more quickly. We saw this with both RedBull and Ferrari opting for red/red/yellow during the race so they did not lose time over the first lap and a half like Lewis did on his hards.
I think conservative tyre strategies like MB often adopt will tend to become a thing of the past. That's a very good thing.
Pirelli used the three hardest compounds I imagine out of caution being the first race under new regs.
The hardest compound with these new low profile tyres seems to have no grip at all and that's on a some what abrasive circuit.
I was underwhelmed by these new cars. The 2017-21 cars were seriously impressive even doing time trial runs.
DRS seemed to play a bigger role than before with these new wings.
Agree with you on the role DRS played in the race, and will play in the future. I don't have a problem with that, as a car with slightly less straight line speed still has a chance to get in front if they can make their move stick.
This could result in some great defensive action as the faster car tries to recover it's position.
Exactly and as the dirty air plays less of a factor, following and overtaking, theoretically, should be much easier
Well, overtakes are never easy, but it should certainly present more overtaking opportunities around the track - theoretically
With DRS it is mostly a speed "passing", but real overtaking is all another story. Since DRS was introduced, there has been a lot of narrative deception and mere speed passes are claimed to be as overtaking, while they are not at all. A number of (so called) F1 drivers, wouldn't have been able to overtake anyone anytime, without DRS.
True, but my point is that even though Max is a natural and instinctive driver, who can overtake in places others would not even dare, he had a car under him which wasn't a match for the Ferraris last weekend.
Thus his passes under DRS would have been good for the racing and the fans if he had been able to make them stick, because we would then have enjoyed Max's defending and Charles driving skills whilst trying to take back the lead.
Unlikely to have changed the result, but the point of the new rules was for more wheel to wheel combat, which we would then have got
The problem is dual. With the aerodynamic disturbance created by the single-seaters that were in F1 from 2014 to 2021, it had become objectively difficult to overtake. Moreover, with a drastic rule change like this one, Mercedes' dominance would have been immediately challenged, so to allow the show to go on "as scripted", it was made to believe that DRS solved the problem. Ultimately, F1 drivers also eventually unlearnt how to overtake without DRS, because real overtaking it's a very difficult move that involves talent and car control skills. It's much easier to overtake on the straights, even better before braking, but calling it overtaking is a narrative deception.