The Car Hub

Don’t moan too much, the Bahrain GP could turn out to be the most exciting of the F1 season.
Chat on pit-car radio during the race has been very revealing as to what we can expect from future races under present regulations.
First revealing factor was the car’s weight, because of this early lap times were averaging 5 seconds slower than qualifying times, the extra fuel to last the race was equal to having a heavy second person in the car.
The extra weight carried also put more wear on the brakes, this meant that drivers did not try the “late-brake” manoeuvre to try and dive inside on corners thereby causing a procession in and out and ruling out any overtaking in this area.
The possible overheating of cars led to some teams ordering drivers to stay out of the hot air from cars ahead of them on the straight, lessening chances of passing again.
With restricted tyre use during races drivers are now ordered to conserve tyres as much as possible. Computer technology informs us (according to the Williams team) that going into the pits for a tyre change costs 28 seconds.
Taking into account preserving fuel consumption, preventing engine overheating and conserving tyres coming out of the pits just about guarantees a procession of cars needing to be overtaken to recover those 28 seconds, small chance of that happening. 
Apart from the track in Spa, Belgium, all other tracks will be much tighter and shorter, and with more cars staring each race this year the events should be reclassified from Grand Prix’s to Grand Processions, is this what we, the paying public,  want?
Bill Williams.