BRITISH F1 duo George Russell and Lando Norris have both voiced concerns that overtaking may have become more difficult for the upcoming campaign.
F1 chiefs implemented a host of new rules for the 2022 season that were designed to make races more exciting.
Russell and Norris tried out overtaking in the new F1 cars at testing in BarcelonaCredit: GettyNorris (L) and Russell both voiced concerned that overtaking may not be as easy this yearCredit: Alamy
The shake-up included tweaks to allow cars to follow each other more closely, which would in theory result in more overtakes.
But while Mercedes new boy Russell and McLaren man Norris reported that following was indeed better, they didn’t have much luck overtaking.
Russell revealed that he had difficulty trying to get past Norris during pre-season testing in Barcelona.
He admitted to reporters: “I think following has been improved but the slipstream effect has been reduced quite substantially, so I don’t really know.”
He continued: “We can follow closer but from what we have seen, the slipstream effect is definitely less effective. We will have to wait and see.
“I got right up behind Lando, I was a car’s length or two behind him and didn’t catch the straight so that was slightly concerning. Let’s see.”
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Norris too was quick to back up Russell, as he admitted he purposely held up Lewis Hamilton’s team-mate in order to see if he could pass him.
He said: “Me and George had a perfect demonstration of it.
“I didn’t want to let him past while he was on a quick lap, so I screwed him over and held him up a bit. That’s what you do in testing.”
He added: “We can follow closer but then the slipstream is worse, so a positive and a negative from it. We don’t know which is the bigger effect at the minute, so we will have to see until the first race.”
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Norris had topped the timesheets after the first of three days testing in Barcelona.
Meanwhile Russell admitted Mercedes were ‘not fully happy’ with the car in Spain, with plenty of work to do before the start of the campaign.
More testing will be held in Bahrain from March 10-12, where drivers will have the chance to get to grips with their new vehicles again.
Both though admitted nobody will know exactly how hard overtaking will be until lights out in the F1 2022 season opener, also in Bahrain, on March 20.
