The Spanish Grand Prix was meant to be the big test as to whether this years rules are working. A Grand Prix in Spain is not something which usually gets the heart pumping very quickly. It's a nice track in a nice country with nice weather and nice people but it always produces boring races. Personally, I prefer a race in Hungary to one in Barcelona although I think I may be in the minority there. This years rules had been introduced to get rid of boring races, so Spain was the perfect test for Pirelli, DRS and KERS.
KERS isn't really new but some teams are still struggling to get it working properly. I am not a big fan of KERS. I get the need for car companies to look a little environmentally friendly while burning 100 litres of fuel in 100 minutes. But if everyone has KERS and uses it at the same time then there is no difference in speeds and KERS turns into an expensive way to get nothing done. So far this year the only time that KERS gets interesting is when it doesn't work. Thank God that Red Bull can't get Vettels KERS hooked up for a whole race. Luckily Red Bull's KERS is about as solid as a Pirelli supersoft and the fast cars get slowed down every now and again. Spain was no different with Vettels mid race KERS breakdown being the only time that you noticed KERS was in the race.
DRS seemed to be the big failure of Spain. In China and Turkey people said DRS made passing too easy but in Barcelona DRS didn't make a difference to the passing even with the longest DRS zone of the season. Although Spain had a record number of passing manouveures this year I don't recall a single DRS passing moment. Maybe instead of reducing the drag of the follwing car the FIA should look at increasing the drag of the car in front.
Where there was a lot of passing in Spain was in the back of the track where passes have never taken place before. There was a simple reason for this. Pirelli tyres. There seem to be people out there complaing about the new rules saying that they are making racing too artificial. I don't recall these same people cheering loudly at processional 2 stop races around Barcelona and Valencia in years gone by. I think it is great to see drivers like Jenson Button being able to overtake people by setting them up through the corners rather than a Tilke inspired passing under breaking after a long straight.
If Spain was the test then I would give the rules a passing grade but that is coming all on the back of Pirelli tyres. DRS and KERS and any other abbreviated device you can think of might as well be thrown away. Give me marbling
KERS isn't really new but some teams are still struggling to get it working properly. I am not a big fan of KERS. I get the need for car companies to look a little environmentally friendly while burning 100 litres of fuel in 100 minutes. But if everyone has KERS and uses it at the same time then there is no difference in speeds and KERS turns into an expensive way to get nothing done. So far this year the only time that KERS gets interesting is when it doesn't work. Thank God that Red Bull can't get Vettels KERS hooked up for a whole race. Luckily Red Bull's KERS is about as solid as a Pirelli supersoft and the fast cars get slowed down every now and again. Spain was no different with Vettels mid race KERS breakdown being the only time that you noticed KERS was in the race.
DRS seemed to be the big failure of Spain. In China and Turkey people said DRS made passing too easy but in Barcelona DRS didn't make a difference to the passing even with the longest DRS zone of the season. Although Spain had a record number of passing manouveures this year I don't recall a single DRS passing moment. Maybe instead of reducing the drag of the follwing car the FIA should look at increasing the drag of the car in front.
Where there was a lot of passing in Spain was in the back of the track where passes have never taken place before. There was a simple reason for this. Pirelli tyres. There seem to be people out there complaing about the new rules saying that they are making racing too artificial. I don't recall these same people cheering loudly at processional 2 stop races around Barcelona and Valencia in years gone by. I think it is great to see drivers like Jenson Button being able to overtake people by setting them up through the corners rather than a Tilke inspired passing under breaking after a long straight.
If Spain was the test then I would give the rules a passing grade but that is coming all on the back of Pirelli tyres. DRS and KERS and any other abbreviated device you can think of might as well be thrown away. Give me marbling
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