George Russell has revealed that drivers intend talking to the FIA and F1 in regards to the lack of overtaking this season.
Whereas the topic made the headlines following – no pun supposed – the latest Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the actual fact is that whereas the brand new laws launched final 12 months allowed automobiles to comply with extra intently, the age-old downside of truly overtaking stays.
There are a variety of causes, together with engineers getting on prime of the principles to create extra downforce and lesser slipstream impact, not forgetting the choice to shorten a few of the present zones.
Such was the processional nature of the Baku race, plenty of drivers spoke out, whereas Mercedes boss, Toto Wolff described the occasion as “boring”.
George Russell, a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Affiliation, says that drivers are to lift the difficulty with F1 and the FIA.
“All of us need the most effective races, probably the most thrilling races,” he stated. “And there is in all probability a number of simpler methods to attain this within the brief time period, like tyre degradation, you already know, it has been simple one-stops within the final couple of races.
“When all people’s pushing flat out, there are much less thrilling races,” he added, “and clearly the DRS has gone within the fallacious course.
“So there’s a few small issues, however you already know, for positive, we will communicate with the FIA and F1 about this as a result of, you already know, we would like to have the ability to race, we would like to have the ability to battle, as all of us did in in go-karts, the place there was no aerodynamics. That is the final word dream.
“I believe the game took a extremely good flip for the higher when these new automobiles had been launched,” he insisted, “however we have to take it to the subsequent step now.”
Nevertheless, the Mercedes driver admits that there should not be a knee-jerk response.
“For a few races now it has been difficult to overhaul,” he stated. “For positive, Baku wasn’t probably the most thrilling race on this planet. However there are a selection of things for that, however there ought to by no means be a knee-jerk response, however we had been all speaking about this difficulty previous to the race in Baku, after which the race clearly went on to be as uninteresting as all of us anticipated.
“It is difficult for everyone,” he admitted. “Clearly, we’re pushing Pirelli to ship a superb tyre, a constant tyre and when it’s tough, you already know, the drivers, myself included, we do not prefer it. However in a super world, you’ve got a really sturdy tyre, which at a sure level falls off the cliff and means you must do a number of extra pit stops and provides it some completely different alternatives within the races. However yeah, I am not too positive actually.”
Esteban Ocon agrees that the dearth of tyre deg can also be a major issue.
“Shortening up the DRS issues does not assist in any respect,” stated the Frenchman. “However there’s something that, you already know, we have not been via but, is that we have accomplished three races with no degradation in the meanwhile, which, you already know, creates extra difficulties to overhaul I believe.
“In Bahrain, we have seen far more overtaking than the final three and there was no deg in Australia, no deg in Jeddah, no deg in Baku. I believe as quickly as there is a bit extra degradation, there’s extra fights and extra enjoyable on observe.”
“F1 created these laws to assist overtaking and following,” stated Russell, “and since they had been launched each single group has type of developed naturally away from their preliminary intentions, as you type of develop the automobile.
“So each automobile on the grid could be very completely different in comparison with what, for example, they had been supposed to appear to be 18 months in the past or two years in the past now or at any time when it was.
“I believe the overtaking is slowly getting harder but in addition as a result of the slipstream is not as massive as nicely with these new automobiles so it is slowly going within the fallacious course for overtaking.”
