After the third and final test of February, in Barcelona, one thing stands out the most in terms of 2011 F1 coordinates: the tires wear out faster, lap time differences between different compounds are huge (2 to 3 seconds) and F1 races will go down to 2 or 3 pit stop strategies this season.
And with everyone inside and around F1 demanding more overtaking in the series, 2-time world champion Alonso insisted tires will be the one element that will provide just that in 2011.
“Nothing else will contribute more to overtaking,” said the Spaniard, “because when you put on new tires you can be up to six seconds faster than the ones who have not yet changed.”
However, the Ferrari-an insisted that the faster cars will always have difficulties in overtaking one another in the race, whereas the new Pirelli rubber will help the top positioned drivers to overtake the backmarkers more easily.
“From what I've experienced, I believe there will be a chance of more overtaking, but not at every corner. It may be easier to overtake slower cars, but between the four cars out in front the difficulty will be the same as before,” he added for EFE news agency.
More overtaking will not come with a better sight of F1 racing however, at least as far as Red Bull's Mark Webber is concerned. In a sense that watching a driver overtake so easily another competitor hardly qualifies as “exciting racing.”
“I think there will be more overtaking,” said the Australian, according to Auto Motor und Sport. “With different strategies there will be greater speed differentials between the cars. But sometimes it will be a car passing easily and disappearing, so I don't know how spectacular that will be.”
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