McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton says rule changes make F1 ‘more exciting’ – Formula 1 news
McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton has said that he is in favour of the new rule changes in Formula 1 that encourage overtaking.
There has been wide criticism of the sport in recent weeks due to the new introduction of equipment to encourage overtaking. Many had said that the sport has lost its authenticity and has become artificial to some extent. The new modifications like the Drag
Reduction System, faster wearing tyres and Kinetic Energy Recovery System have done wonders to help drivers overtake in the 2011 season.
Hamilton said that he has enjoyed all the new tools provided to the drivers. He believes that these add ons not only help the drivers become more competitive but also make the sport more appealing to the fans.
Hamilton said, “I enjoy racing with Kers hybrid and DRS - it makes it more entertaining for the drivers and fans. Anything that makes the racing more exciting should be applauded and we've definitely had more interesting races.”
The 2008 champions used the KERS very well in China where he managed to outpace Sebastian Vettel and won the race. That was the only occasion so far this season that any driver managed to beat Sebastian Vettel.
The win was also testimony to the clever strategy of McLaren who decided to take one extra pit stop, just to make sure that Hamilton had fresher tyres. The new tyres did help the Brit to gain on Vettel and in the end won the race.
The views of Lewis Hamilton are shared by his fellow drivers such as Fernando Alonso who has said he likes the new look F1. Alonso was also of the opinion that the new tools to overtake this season have made the races more exciting and easy on the eye.
The DRS is a moveable wing in layman terms. It is placed at the back of the car and when the car is within a second of the car ahead of it, the driver is allowed to deploy the DRS. However, the car defending its position is not allowed to use the DRS.
As far as McLaren are concerned, the more worrying thing for them is the pace of their car in Turkey. The British team had a disappointing weekend in Istanbul and even though Hamilton and Button both finished 4th and 6th respectively
it was well below what was expected of them in the run up to the race.
Jenson Button though did not blame the car and believes that it was poor planning and strategy from the team that cost them the race.
The 2009 world champion said, “We'd planned to introduce a couple of useful upgrades but weren't able to get them on the car. We feel pretty confident we'll get pace and reliability from some of our planned upgrades so I'm optimistic they'll be on the car
for Barcelona.”
The next race will take place in Barcelona and McLaren will surely address the issues faced by them in Turkey to make a stronger comeback.
Meanwhile, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton would have to make sure that they get more used to the new tools in order to make maximum use of them at the Catalan circuit on the coming weekend.
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