Ok, it is early to tell, but it seems like it is set up for a processional year. We have a rule that force them to qualify, and subsequently start, with tires unsuitable for full tanks. That forces the drivers to nurse the tires and drive without attacking another car, which could lead to an extra pit stop. So far the Bharain race looks horrible, there is NO action whatsoever, everybody just get their own space and try to make the supersofts last as long as possible, hoping being able to make a one stopper, or at least make it with only two stops.

I am not adding a poll, it's way to early for that, but is there any hope for this season?

Advice: Go and watch another sport.

It is an epically SHIT track though, really the entire S2 could be done away with easily.

New rules did not change anything, same old boring procession.

Let us face it: F1 is more exciting to follow for political dramas rather than racing.

When will you people ever learn that not every single race can be a breathtaking thriller? Never was, never will be.

It's like demanding every single soccer match being an epic classic.

So they can't pit, and when they're in the dirty air they cant overtake because the tyres get destroyed? BRILLIANT!

There was a poll last year about whether banning refuelling would improve overtaking, and it was 113 yes and 83 no, sadly the no's were right.

This situation was so predictable. Even the change to say had to start on fastest lap qualy tyres only changed it to them all starting on soft instead of hard, but still they just do enough to hold position.



The whole concept of low fuel qualifying is broken when nobody can overtake. 2010 is going to be worse than 2009. Even drastically out of place cars (e.g. Sutil) can't progress through the field.

Umpty billion pounds spend on the worlds most glamorous and elite sport, fantastic things going on with new teams and drivers, but still they have created the dullest racing possible - and its all because nobody will grow a pair and FIX THE OVERTAKING (harder tyres, half the wing, more off-line grip, no diffusers etc).

All the no refuelling has done is make a bad situation worse. Unforgiveable.

I love F1 and follow all the sessions, practices, tests, the lot. I don't demand constant overtaking as this has and will never happen. I hate gimicky rules that try to "SHake Things Up" or "Make it more interesting.

However, I must admit I think this year the rules have made things worse. What I do want to see is drivers pushing hard and on the edge. The new rules made todays race seem more like an endurance race. I know that endurance has always been an ingrediant of F1. But all the teams were constantly telling drivers to slow down, nurse the engines, nurse the tyres. Who wants to see that all season?

At one point Massa was warned to slow down "Remeber its not just for this race but for the next 6" said his engineer!

I agree F1 needs to develop technology for the real world so increasing the longevity of components is important but it has moved to far and become almost an economy excersize.

The races are very long, they should be, but it is supposed to be an extended sprint race to test the worlds best cars and drivers. But instead it is becoming an endurance race split into several weekends!

I think this has been happening over a few seasons, but the radio transmission during todays race really showed the drivers are not allowed to pushh 100% in the race, which I think is sad and wrong.

No rules will change a shit-track into a nice-track. My veredict will come at the end of the season.

The tyres are simply too durable. Less pit stops means less variables and more processional racing.

ITS NOT THE RULES ITS THE TRACK.

Bahrain has been a boring place ever since they started raced there.

Wait for Melbourne for the season to really start.

Was it Mosley or Todt who invented this rule? :/

Why single out Bahrain as a bad track? Sure the new S2 is terrible, but overall the track is not any worse than Valencia, Silverstone etc.

Nothing is worse then Valencia.

But you cant judge F1 in 2010 on one race especially when that one race has been at Bahrain. Wait before you pass judgement until after Melbourne. Melbourne is a proper track, not the huge car park that Bahrain is, the racing will be much better at the proper race tracks.

They need to somehow get rid of this problem where by when a car gets within 1 second of the car infront their engine and tyres cook. If they can solve that problem the rest will come.

Bahrain, as boring as it looks on TV, is actually one of the most overtaking friendly circuits on the calendar. Certainly more so than Silverstone, Abu Dhabi, Monaco, Malaysia, Hungary, Suzuka, Valencia and Singapore. If the cars can't pass here then it's a bad omen for the rest of the season. I'll reserve judgement until after Australia. If they can't pass there then they won't pass anywhere.

Personally I still think the frozen, rev-limited engines are a huge part of the problem as are the DDDs.

I'd just like to thank the FIA and Bernie.

Thanks for F1 in 2010
God awful looking cars that can hardly even follow each other closely let alone pass.
Races at soulless tracks in the middle of nowhere in front of empty grandstands.
Races where the cars spend 2 hours on an economy run seconds slower than their ultimate pace.
Contrived but nevertheless boring Qualifying.
And lastly thank you for removing one of the only interesting parts of race day in the last couple of years..strategy.

Copied pasted from other thread:

It was a better race than last year, where we had a manic first 3/4 laps then boring throughout. This year we at least saw a bit of overtaking throughout.

Pity Red Bull had their problem, because I was looking forward to Vettel vs Ferraris. Schumi did OK I guess, and congrats to the new teams, in particular Lotus. Do Lotus and Virgin have a DD?

But you see, you are trying to make Bahrain to look good by bringing out train-tracks like Valencia or Silverstone.

That was the overtaking we saw
So if had Vettel have not had that problem, this would have been a worse race than last year?

The problem is the tyres are too good. But if they weren't, people here would be moaning it was a joke/dangerous/not befitting F1.

I think its a bit early lets wait for some more fun tracks to come and we'll see but today we needed refueling. maybe FIA needs to force teams to make 2 mandatory stops? 1 stop and that was the whole fun in the whole race....overtaking was piss poor as always

But "good" is relative. Too me a "good" tyre is durable even when it is abused. Seems like these tires are durable only when they are not abused.

First race, everyone trying to feel out each other. Bahrain later in the season might have given us a completely different race with some teams pushing harder, taking chances trying to claw back whatever they lost in the beginning of the season. I have a hard time remembering a really exciting season opener.

Having a race somewhere other than in a scorching desert might help.

The race was fine. Anyone who blames this race on the new rules must have a short memory because the race last year was a procession as well once the toyota's pitted.

uber Tilkedrome


Long straights with over weighted cars and rev limited engines. We will have same bore racing on Valencia, Singapore and probably Sepang.


Can't wait for Australia.

These rules need changing, how many overtakes were there in the top 8 between lap 3 and lap 49?

I'll use the 'too early to tell' cliche.

This track is particularly hot, and hard on tyres, so lets wait till we see a couple more GPs/

There were numerous overtaking manouvres in the race, for example:

Glock > Kovalainen
Hamilton > Barrichello
Various drivers > Buemi
Various drivers > Sauber drivers
Webber > Button (unseen)

Last year there was less overtaking throughout the field.

More than anything else, this was a "test session" for the new formula, so things should heat up in subsequent GPs as the teams get a handle on what is going on (and perhaps try different strategies as well...).

The tyres are not the problem. Looking after them was always a strong theme in F1. Only in recent memory with refuelling has there been quick sprints where you need only worry about graining and nothing else.

The main problem is the dirty air. Looks like the zone is as long as it has ever been and holds up ever more faster cars that are stuck behind. It's quite ridiculous.

I repeat, the tyres are not the problem. Remember Suzuka 89. Senna stalled on the grid and bump started and then worked his way through the field all the way back up to Prost, his teammate. If I recall, was Prost not conserving his tyres? He could not just simply keep a 20 second gap between him and Senna.

This race showed us really the effects of standardization, enforced reliability and modern aerodynamics, not the effects of the refuelling ban.

Yep.
I dunno what race people was looking at. I also saw many people passing. Btw, Sauber drivers also overtook other cars.

Yeah on paper it is. Because Tilke thought, a very slow corner leading to a long straight and back to a very slow corner is good for overtaking. Tracks are hairpin - long straight - hairpin, he thought if there is not enough speed and no dirty air in the corner before the long straight cars will be close to each other. But what he didnt thought of was that when cars accelerate out of very slow corners they open up a huge gap on each other that can hardly be closed until the end of the straight.

Why were there so many overtaking maneuvres coming out of the last corner of Interlagos, or after Eau Rouge, or before the adelaide hairpin at Magny Cours etc. they all have one thing in common, a medium- to fast corner leads to a long straight. Thats what Tilke tried to avoid as much as he could because he thought thats bad for overtaking. So we got alot of hairpin-straights-hairpin sections that are boring to watch and make it hard to overtake.

My disappointment in the race came from the feeling, almost from the first lap, that it was all about conservation. Cars are heavy, watch the tires, watch the breaks, follow to close and you'll cook the tires........ and then at the end saving engines and watching fuel. It had an endurance race feel to it.


I was not in favor of the ban or refueling and todays race confirmed my opinion. First race however and maybe Australia will change my mind, hope so.

A little disapointed, no refueling didn´t generate more overtaking or more exticting races.

They still need to take away stupid rules that you need to start with the tires you qualify
on and take away the rule that you need to pit and use both tires.
Seriously, why??

Driving the car with full tanks you´re even more in trouble in the dirty air = less overtaking.

The key: durability of the tyres.

Reduce that and we have instant action and more pitstops.

Maybe it is hard to get excited over a pass for position 16? Or someone passing a midfield runner that is on another pit stop strategy?
Was there any passing within the points, except Webber passing Luizzi, after lap 2?

how come we get this thread every single year ?

if you want to see very close racing with alot of passing go watch NASCAR.

In terms of grip vs durability, the tyre should be selected such that two stopping is the norm. As it was, nobody had any real difficulty with doing 2/3 of the race hard tyre. Heck, I'd probably go with a single compound, that just about managed half distance if driven carefully.

I dont know how you can conclude that from a TV coverage.

Especially since in contrary to last year it seems not so many were stuck behind slower cars; look even vettel who managed to hold his pace up was overtaken by Alonso, Massa and Hamilton.
We didn't see any car with massive advantage closing on someone and suddenly being stuck behind.



I would say that on the contrary it seems the wake problem is less this year, the ban on wheel covers, possible good effect of DD and a mix of of tyre management could give good resutls.

Wait a bit.

The new rules make the first half of the race boring and the second half a bit more exciting than before.

Season as a whole will be very exciting to follow whereas the races individually will be boring to watch. Formula 1 turned out to be a sport where you just have to follow live timing much more than what's happening on track just to be able to feel whether some racing if any exists in the field. Numbers are telling more than cars themselves.

I agree with the other posters who said this felt like an endurance race. Everyone was preserving something - tyres, engine, gearbox. Passing a car that's experiencing problems and is almost too sick to defend itself is not true overtaking. They've managed to kill the excitement and we don't even really have strategy to spice it up (can't believe I'm saying that - F1 shouldn't NEED strategy to spice it up!)

The most exciting action to watch was the stuff at the back with the new teams. Well done to Lotus! Mark Webber's over filled oil was the only thing that created excitement at the start of the race.

I can only hope that things improve in Australia but I have to say I'm not that optimistic. F1 needs more technical innovation and an end to the engine freeze!

I don't think rules changed that much. People seem to forget we had EXACTLY the same problems last year (back off so you save your tires), and then Bahrain was an even bigger borefest. At least this time around we had some overtaking further back in the field.

If you don't like these kind of threads then open different threads instead.

...and - thought that's against the idea to save costs - a reduction on the mandatory life-span of gearbox and engine. If teams and drivers knew they get a new engine and gearbox in two weeks anyway and the current components won't be used again during the rest of the season, they don't need to look after their car (that much) towards the end of the race.

- no engine freeze
- shorter life-span of gearbox and engine
- softer tyres, to get more pit stops and more mechanical grip and thereby more overtaking

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