Efficiency converges, and overtaking disappears.
“We underestimated the issue of overtaking.” In Hungary, these statements had been made by Pink Bull staff principal Christian Horner, and in Belgium, McLaren’s prime man Andrea Stella reiterated the identical idea. In Budapest, Verstappen, with brisker tires, adopted behind Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes in two stints, and the identical occurred to Lando Norris at Spa in his useless pursuit of Max Verstappen. Pink Bull and McLaren are one of the best vehicles on the grid—primarily based on the standings—however that wasn’t sufficient to beat their opponents.
Budapest and Spa-Francorchamps are two fully totally different circuits, however encountering difficulties in overtaking even in Belgium is an alarm bell—or a indisputable fact that have to be absolutely acknowledged—concerning the convergence of efficiency because of the flattening of the educational and growth curves of the rules launched in 2022. That is contradicting what F1 governance meant to realize with the return of floor impact. The aim was to make on-track battles simpler, and certainly, initially of 2022, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc crossed paths virtually each Sunday. However after two years, being in soiled air now proves to be detrimental and infrequently essential in making overtaking, if not outright inconceivable, at the very least very difficult except you have got a major efficiency benefit in automotive or tires.
Andrea Stella emphasised this whereas analyzing the top of the Belgian GP: “Regardless that Hamilton had a lot brisker tires, the soiled air prevented him from critically pressuring Russell,” mentioned the McLaren staff principal. F1 is experiencing an thrilling historic second, as Ferrari’s prime man Frederic Vasseur highlighted—”4 groups inside ten seconds with out VSC or SC is one thing particular for the championship”—and that is objectively true. In 2024, seven drivers and 4 totally different groups have already gained, and it’s very troublesome to foretell the result of a race weekend precisely.
The Spa race, overtakes or not, was very thrilling. Lowering the DRS zone on the Kemmel straight by 75 meters may need excessively penalized overtaking, however it’s clear that it’s turning into more and more troublesome to seek out the best steadiness between facilitating overtaking or excessively penalizing those that must defend. Qualifying and observe place have gotten decisive once more in F1, and the staff ‘captains’ are the primary to appreciate it. The execution of the weekend, ranging from the selection of tires to make use of in free follow—Pink Bull regretted utilizing a set of exhausting tires initially of FP1—in a situation the place steadiness reigns and overtaking turns into increasingly more troublesome, will make the distinction from Zandvoort to Abu Dhabi. Max Verstappen’s lead over Lando Norris (78 factors) is comfy within the Drivers’ standings, however the Constructors’ title is broad open, with McLaren and Ferrari not up to now behind a Pink Bull that hasn’t gained in 4 races—a drought Verstappen hasn’t skilled since 2020—and that might want to discover that qualifying edge once more (Max Verstappen took the primary seven poles in 2024) to bolster their hopes of defending each titles, as within the race, it could be sufficient to ‘park the bus’ by exploiting observe place.
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