Fernando Alonso said it is too early for fans to write off Formula One as boring as the sport has always featured limited overtaking.
Last week’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which included a sprint race and the regular grand prix itself, featured limited overtaking opportunities.
“This is Formula 1 — it has been always like this,” Alonso said ahead of the race in Miami. “There was seven years of [Lewis] Hamilton and [Valtteri] Bottas first and second, it has been in the past [Sebastian] Vettel and [Mark] Webber…
“If you have the fastest car and you’re going to start a little bit behind you will still maybe be making some moves and overtakes, but if you are in many other cars are all within one tenth [of a second] or whatever, where you qualify you’re more or less secure in that position and there’s not many overtakings after lap two or three.
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“Maybe [n Miami] we can see some rain so it may change on Sunday, but to not see many overtakes is the nature of Formula 1, so should not be a surprise.”
Formula One’s rule changes, which were implemented at the start of 2022, were supposed to produce cars which are able to follow more closely, creating more overtaking opportunities. Alonso thinks it is too early to write off those rule changes as a failure.
“I think there were high expectations on following cars and having the grid a bit closer together, but I don’t know — I think we need to give a little bit more time,” Alonso said. “If we didn’t have the Red Bulls that much ahead I think it’s a very interesting fight, with three or four teams [within] one or two tenths.
“We’re saying the new rules are a success, so maybe this is the story in a few years’ time or whatever when we have some stability in the rules — maybe 2026, everything changes again.”
Reigning world champion Max Verstappen said the heavier cars F1 has now have been counter-productive in the hunt for more overtaking.
“Because of the weight of the cars we have nowadays, because they’re quite heavy, in the low speed it’s a bit harder to follow,” Verstappen said.
“As soon as you have a tiny moment with that weight, it becomes a bigger slide, it’s harder on the tyres so you overheat the tyres more.
“And also with these new type of cars, you have to run them super stiff whereas I remember like 2015 or ’16, you could sometimes [take] a few different lines, you could run a kerb because the cars were quite – well, not soft – but it’s still a…
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