Hamilton warns new rules will make overtaking difficult

Lewis Hamilton has again questioned Formula One’s 2017 regulations and has warned overtaking will be difficult this season. On his third day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya, Hamilton said new downforce-focused rules will make passing under race conditions difficult.“When the design came out, the engineers said this is the wrong design, this is the wrong way,” he said. “They said it is going to make the cars faster, it is going to give us more downforce but it is going to make the cars harder to follow.”He said that has now been borne out with track time in Barcelona: “When you are behind it feels one way for a second then you have a cross wind you’re not expecting or you lose front-end grip and you have to lift and then you never get close enough. I was behind several different cars and it was not easy.”The cause is turbulent air in the wake of the leading car caused by increased aerodynamics that are part of new regulations Hamilton has acknowledged makes the cars better to drive. “We have these cars that look fantastic and they drive amazingly but as you get behind another car, it has pure air in front and the car behind [is] in the dirty air,” he said.With Ross Brawn suggesting a non-championship F1 round to experiment with new formats for the sport yesterday, Hamilton also suggested that might be a consideration if the lack of passing becomes a major issue.“The way these cars are and the direction and the design they go, it makes it difficult for us to overtake and people complain that we don’t overtake,” he said. “You have to come up with some different scenarios for races. Look at Monaco, you can’t keep doing the same race format, you just can’t overtake there, maybe they need to do something to spice it up.”The new rules were intended to make cars faster and more difficult to drive. But, on the evidence of testing, although speeds are up and times are down, it is not particularly appreciable by fans watching on television.Worse still, the evidence thus far is that while the cars are more difficult to drive – and there is a consensus among drivers that they are a real physical challenge – there is little that outwardly suggests this is the case and so the intent to improve the spectacle has not been achieved. If it is at the further cost of a decrease in overtaking, the sport’s attempt to reset itself will be in trouble.Bottas in 8-year Barcelona high as Ferrari threatenAFP/BarcelonaValtteri Bottas demonstrated his readiness to step into the shoes of retired world champion Nico Rosberg by setting the pace, but Ferrari showed further signs that they could challenge Mercedes this season on day three of pre-season testing in Barcelona.The limits of more powerful, faster cars allowed this year by radical rules changes were pushed as Bottas set the fastest time at the Circuit de Catalunya since 2009 in 1min 19.705sec on supersoft tyres.However, four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel’s second fastest time of 1:19.952 on soft tyres was quicker than Bottas on the same compound.Flying Finn Bottas handed over to Lewis Hamilton for the afternoon session, but the Briton didn’t trouble the top of the timesheets as he focused on race simulation and more miles in the Mercedes W08.Hamilton completed 95 laps in just a few hours in the seventh fastest time.“I think it was another good session. We completed lots of mileage and the entire programme that we’d planned to do — including some long and short runs, collecting information on the different tyre compounds,” said Bottas.“We did some aero work to start with in the morning when the conditions were cold, then moved onto testing different settings on the car. It was a pretty straightforward day again, so I think everyone has done a great job so far. The car is running well and it’s feeling better and better.”Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo claimed on Tuesday that Mercedes can be beaten this season after three years of dominance.And the Australian and Dutch teammate Max Verstappen look to have at least the third best car on the grid as Ricciardo posted the third best time of the day in his 70 laps.“I definitely learned more about the car and the tyres today and really started to feel the downforce,” said Ricciardo. “I think when we start doing 60 laps in the heat you’re going to see some physical limits being pushed for us drivers.”There were promising signs for Renault as Jolyon Palmer and Nico Hulkenberg registered the fourth and fifth fastest times.However, McLaren-Honda’s troubles continued as two-time world champion Fernando Alonso only managed the 10th fastest time despite trying out ultrasoft tyres.