Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas believes that new wider, faster cars of 2017 shouldn’t be judged on their overtaking capabilities from Melbourne alone, believing that other circuits will produce better racing.
Traditionally the Albert Park circuit has not often been the scene of numerous overtakes as the most recent race had proved.
Many drivers including team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg believed from pre-season testing and the recent race weekend that overtaking the car in front will be ‘almost impossible’.
Speaking to Autosport, Bottas said: “The circuits with really long straights will be very good racing because also the slipstreaming has a bigger effect now, and DRS does too with these rear wings.
“So some places we will see good racing and some places like Barcelona it will be very difficult to overtake. Let’s wait a few more races and see how the racing goes, but obviously [Australia] was more tricky than last year.”
FIA President Jean Todt had previously claimed that the increased difficulty of overtaking was the price to pay for the faster cars, but that view has not been well received by fans.
However Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen has backed up what he compatriot has said on the matter, believing that the issue may not be as bad as first predicted.
“I think the lapping, I must say, it felt more easy,” added Raikkonen.
“Obviously there might be a bigger difference between teams, so that kind of helps, but I think if you take any top team, top car, against another, it’s never going to be easy to overtake.
“It depends a lot when people stop and what deg your tyres are at and the speed of the car generally.”
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