Did you watch the opening race of the 2010 season? Did you manage to keep your eyes open the whole race? If you did, well done. I drifted off a couple of times and I don’t remember that happening since the last time Herr Schumacher was in the cockpit of one of the cars. Of course he doesn’t think the new rules have made F1 boring: the seasons when he was driving for Ferrari were dull as the proverbial ditch water.
The new rules stipulate that the cars may not refuel during the race, therefore all the cars have to start with a full tank of fuel. Some bright spark thinks that this will somehow increase excitement and overtaking. I don’t see how. There isn’t much overtaking in Formula 1 at the best of times, so the added tactical interest of working out who would be re-fuelling on which lap made the whole thing a bit more interesting. It allowed teams to only lightly fuel the car to make a big weight saving, which could then be turned into positions on track, provided they timed the re-fuel stop right.
Another new rule states that the first ten cars on the grid have to use the same (partially worn) tyres that they qualified on. I think this could have a small field levelling effect, but I don’t see how it will add to the excitement of the race from a spectator’s point of view.
I’ll reserve full judgement until I’ve seen the Australian Grand Prix.
Well, I have to say that the Australian Grand Prix was brilliant, though I think that had more to do with the weather and tyre selections than the rule changes. Let’s see what Malaysia brings this weekend – hopefully more of the same.