The FIA's single-seater technical director Nikolas Tombazis has defended 2022's rules overhaul following criticism from the likes of Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.
The much-anticipated overhaul was meant to make it easier for drivers to follow one another more closely and thereby increase the chances of overtaking. However, while cars can now follow more closely than before, overtaking remains a problem and as a result we are still having to rely on the gimmick that is DRS.
According to Pirelli, overtakes in 2022 were up 30% on the previous season, with 785 this year and 599 in 2021.
The Italian manufacturer's F1 boss, Mario Isola is keen to make clear that these are 'proper' overtakes and doesn't include those where two DRS zones are close together allowing driver A to pass driver B and then driver B to retake the position. Nor does it include drivers making up a position due a rival pitting or suffering an issue.
Indeed, other than the sheer number of passes, Isola points to some of the battles witnessed over the course of the season.
"They were fighting two... three cars together, overtaking each other, trying to use any possibility or any mistake from the competitor to overtake and pushing for not one corner but three... four... five laps," said the Italian.
"That's the biggest difference that I have seen this year compared to the past," he added. "It was not easy to do that. It was possible because of the new cars, it's not just the tyres. But the tyres were also helping to achieve that, so I'm quite happy with that."
However, two-time world champion, and one of the sport's great fighters, Fernando Alonso doesn't agree.
"It was a bit disappointing for everyone to realise that things haven't changed dramatically," he told Auto Motor und Sport. "The gap between the two or three top teams and the midfield is still too big.
"In 50% of the races we are one lap behind the winner," he added. "Therefore, we have not yet achieved the result that Formula 1 intended with the restart of the rules."
"We follow closer, but we've got less drag," said four-time champ Sebastian Vettel, "so you need to be closer to also overtake. And on tyres, the big target was to allow racing more, but I don't think it is a big difference either.
"I don't want to say it has failed," insisted the German. "But certainly a lot of effort had gone in and not all the effort came out, let's put it this way."
Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA's single-seater technical director, doesn't accept the criticism.
"I think it did improve the ability of cars to follow each other so I think that, in combination with the tyres, did help," he says.
"Clearly a good race needs cars to be close to each other fighting, and the second half of this season, it was not so close. There was a clear-cut winner, of course," he admits.
"But I do think that it is going to be quite a lot closer next year again. And, with the natural convergence, I think that, in combination with the cars being able to a) race close and b) fight more with the tyres and not overheat them, I think that will lead to some very good races.
"Overall this year, I think the races were generally quite exciting. So I don't think it was for little gain. I think the gain was reasonable. I can confirm it was a lot of effort."
Referring to Vettel's comment about there being less drag, which in turn compromises slipstreaming, Tombazis says: "If you simulate two cars following each other say one second apart, on the straight, that one second is about 60 metres and in the corner that one second is 20 metres because of the speed. So the percentage gain find in the corner is still a lot bigger than the loss on the straight.
"Some of the doubters of this whole approach were saying: ‘well you lose the slipstream', which is indeed a bit smaller. But when you actually do the simulation about how much the car that is one second behind can approach the front car, you're still considerably better off if you have this effect."
Drivers have also complained that once drivers get within a second of the car ahead there remains a lot of turbulence.
"To not have any disturbed air is never going to happen," admits Tombazis. "That would only be the case if the cars had very little or no downforce, like the 60's or whatever. So there's always going to be a wake effect.
"In the near wake, there was still a reduction of the loss, so we went from losing 50 percent, to losing about 25 percent. It's still a sizeable loss, but, by then, you're into the DRS and can compensate for that partially."
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