Questions over the impact of Formula 1's controversial new regulations are sure to creep into every critical discussion in coming weeks, after this weekend's Turkish Grand Prix set new all-time records for most overtaking moves and most pit stops in a race. For 2011, all Formula 1 cars now run on Pirelli tyres, the Italian company having replaced Bridgestone at the end of the 2010 season as sole tyre supplier. In pre-season testing it quickly became clear that Pirelli's rubber was a major step below Bridgestone's in terms of durability. Pirelli made haste to point out that this degradation was deliberate, as it would result in greater performance differential between drivers at different times, as well as more varied pit strategies.
The return of Pirelli has coincided with two other measures intended to promote overtaking and help create an exciting new era of Formula One. The return of Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) technology first used in 2009, allowing drivers to gain a boost of 80 horsepower for seven seconds per lap, is a major development but has slipped under the radar thanks to the divisive new Drag Reduction System (DRS). The DRS allows a driver following another car to open a slot in his rear-wing to decrease aerodynamic drag, resulting in a speed increase of up to 15 km/h which drastically aids the overtaking process. The system was devised as a counter to the notorious turbulence effect felt when following another car. Turbulence has become prevalent over the last ten to fifteen years as car performance has increasingly shifted away from the mechanical to the aerodynamic. This loss of downforce when within a few seconds of a leading car had reigned supreme, largely cancelling out any attempted regulations to promote overtaking until this year. Usage of the DRS is extremely limited however, as a driver must be within one second of the car in front at a single defined point on the circuit and is allowed to deploy the system only in a single zone, generally the circuit's longest straight.
The chancy new regulations have for the most part, been a huge success. The first four races of the 2011 season have been a marked departure from the recent formulaic past. Pirelli degradation has resulted in more pit-stops, during which positions regularly change, and KERS and DRS have through their limited mandate, given just enough of a small helping hand to overtake. At least that was the unanimous feeling after the first race or two. But with the Chinese Grand Prix, and now even more noticeably in Istanbul this week, the beginnings of a major rumbling from a number of circles have started to emerge.
In the opening race in Australia, a solid 30 overtaking moves were successfully made. This jumped to a wonderful 70 for the second round in Malaysia, hardly a surprise given its two generous straights. In both cases nearly half these passes had direct influence from DRS technology. But the upturn kept going unabated. In China there were 90 moves, in Turkey a staggering and record-breaking 112. One should never scoff at too much overtaking, but the telling statistic is that of those 112 moves, 71 were as a result of DRS deployment. Anyone watching the race could see the ease with which cars were able to open their rear wing and drive past the car in front as if they were standing still. These moves were complete well before the braking zone, whereas the FIA mandate for the DRS technology was merely to assist cars in getting side by side in the braking zone, at which point driver skill would come to the fore.
As unthinkable an irony as it may be, the Turkish Grand Prix has led to a number of criticisms from prominent members of the paddock, including drivers, that there is too much overtaking action in Formula One now, and that it is too artificial. These concerns don't just refer to the on-track action, but also to the spiraling number of pit-stops the high wear rate of the Pirelli tyres have necessitated. The Turkish Grand Prix not only equalled a 28 year old overtake record, but broke an 18 year old record for most number of pit stops in a single race, 79.
The notion that Formula One could have so suddenly shifted from lacking action to having too much is for the most part a childish one, and the majority of fans and people involved in the sport have given the new regulations a major thumbs up. The critics seem to have two major beefs. In Turkey as soon as any car came close to another through the kink that leads onto the long DRS-zone straight, it was a foregone conclusion that they would ease past and slot back into the racing line in front of their rival before the corner. The one driver who was less keen to give up his position so easily was Michael Schumacher, and he duly caused at least two amateurish collisions into the corner. If these positional changes weren't enough, four-stop strategies have become the norm now and many, led by Ferrari Team Principal Stefano Domenicali, claim that the constant position changing due to pitstops have made races too fast-moving and confusing for casual fans to follow. I wonder however if Domenicali shortchanges the intellectual capabilities of his sport's following. Furthermore, the plethora of passes in Turkey was an anomaly, the DRS system is still a work-in-progress and will clearly be deployed at a less liberal juncture next year.
Istanbul of its own accord is a particularly friendly track to the cause of overtaking. Like at the previous race in Shanghai, the DRS zone was at a traditional overtaking hot-spot, at the end of two long periods of non-stop full throttle which are barely matched on the entire calendar. One cannot judge the effectiveness of DRS after tracks like Shanghai and Istanbul. Next week's Round 5 of the championship is the Spanish Grand Prix at the challenging but notoriously dull Circuit de Catalunya. The Barcelona circuit is the testing home away from home for most Formula One teams, and as such most drivers and setup engineers can almost tune into the circuit with their eyes closed. Therefore the Spanish Grand Prix will always reveal the true pecking order of Formula One, as there is little in the way of driver struggle or setup error to explain a performance away. But more to the point, the error-free perfection with which most drivers can navigate the circuit, and the greater distance between cars, means that overtaking has traditionally been virtually non-existent throughout the circuit's 20 year history. This is a tradition which may finally be mercifully changed thanks to the new regulations.
But with the new regulations being a work-in-progress, the FIA must make sure they are able to learn the lessons gleaned from the opening races for the future, because there are definite concerns which need to be addressed. There were early criticisms of the DRS when it was first tabled as an idea during 2010, which amidst the hoopla of Istanbul have largely been lost. Drivers were initially opposed to the system because they feared the extreme closing speeds would cause accidents like Mark Webber's in Valencia last year, where Webber rode up over the back of the much slower Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen and was launched into spectacular death-defying somersault through the sky. This is one reason why the inconsistency of allowing DRS usage at any time in Practice and Qualifying, but only at a single strictly defined zone in the race, needs to be addressed. In Melbourne, looking to get his wing flap open early, Adrian Sutil had a bemusing spin at the normally unchallenging exit of the final turn, almost planting his Force India into the pit wall. Drivers are pushing their risk taking further and further, employing the system through fast corners not just on the straight. The aerodynamically supreme Red Bull can already be seen doing this regularly. It is only a matter of time before an overambitious application of the system mid-corner, or a mechanical failure which leaves the flap open into a braking zone, will cause a serious accident.
The regularity of pit-stops could also prove to be dangerous in time, as Domenicali pointed out after the Turkish Grand Prix. Tracks with tighter pit lanes, such as many of the upcoming European circuits, will struggle to handle the overcrowding and may lead to potential accidents in pit lane, which are naturally a safety hazard to nearby mechanics. Those mechanics also face increasing pressure as the regularity of pit activity increases, and their errors can just be as dangerous a few laps later when the driver is going full speed as they are to life and limb inside the garage.
The development direction of the Pirelli tyres could prove to be the ultimate solution to both these problems. The combination of danger and artificiality means that although it has proven a useful bonus, the Drag Reduction System is not the most sustainable future development. KERS on the other hand is at the forefront of modern motoring technology, with major benefits for road car technology. If it can be tweaked to possibly include a bonus especially for the car behind as DRS provides, KERS combined with the Pirelli tyres should do the job of providing exciting on-track action adequately. At tracks like Spain and Monaco, difference in tyre performance is likely to make create far more overtaking than any DRS boost anyway. The problem with Pirelli's 'deliberate degradation' is the specific way the profile of their tyres wear down, and the performance differential. Pirelli's harder compounds have proven far slower than the soft compounds compared to Bridgestone's equivalent tyres last year. Were they closer in performance there would be far more differentiation in strategy choice. The main problem however is that the Pirelli's are said to colloquially 'fall off a cliff', losing all performance almost immediately upon the beginning of degradation. Trying to handle such extreme wear is beyond the capabilities of even the most smooth drivers like Jenson Button. Consequently every team is forced onto a uniform three or four-stop strategy.
Pirelli need to change their tyre profiles so that they still begin to wear quickly and lose peak performance, but do not drop so harshly off the proverbial cliff. This would create far greater strategic variation (should we go 1,2,3 or 4-stops?), and rather than resigning to come into the pits at the first sign of wear, good tyre management would be rewarded. The hustle and bustle of the pit lane would also somewhat decrease as the race would likely have less total pit stops. But most importantly, the polar extremes in strategy of so many different cars would create more extreme performance gaps, and consequently more overtaking. Every Grand Prix would be even more strategically unpredictable and exciting than they already are.
