How F1 race leaders have now lost their comfort blanket

Formula 1’s 2022 car regulations were never designed to produce huge overtaking fests with four or five swaps of lead every lap.

Instead, the priority went much deeper than that: it was about allowing cars to follow each other better and that would ultimately improve the racing.

The opening races of the season did not deliver a dramatically different type of grand prix, with perhaps the only stark contrast to before being how powerful the DRS was compared to the past.

But as teams have settled down in understanding their cars and the way they need to maximise their performance, fresh lessons have emerged. And one of the key ones we have seen exposed at Imola and Miami is not good news for race leaders.

Rewind a few years and the way to win an F1 race was pretty straightforward. Get your car on pole, try to break the DRS in the first two laps, and then make sure you don’t get undercut at the stops.

The nature of the old school cars meant that, even if the driver behind was quicker than you, his chances of getting past you before the stops was pretty minimal.

The turbulence thrown up by your car meant anyone chasing you was going to be battling disrupted downforce, they would slide more and that would serve to overheat the tyres and increase degradation.

Old technique of initially breaking out of DRS reach no longer works for leaders, as demonstrated in Imola sprint race

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

It meant that F1 action was normally restricted to just the first lap, or around the time of the pitstops as teams tried to plot their way to gain track position.

This comfort blanket of knowing that the car behind was unable to properly threaten because of almost guaranteed worse tyre wear put all the power in whoever was running in clear air out front.

Things now appear to be very different, though - which is why it has been fascinating to see Max Verstappen twice overtake Charles Leclerc thanks to the way tyre degradation characteristics play out in a completely different way.

In Imola’s sprint race, having lost the lead to his Ferrari rival off the line, Verstappen appeared to be on course for no better than second as Leclerc pulled clear in the early stages.

These Imola and Miami passes have delivered proof that the nature of racing in 2022 appears to be very different

Indeed, with F1’s previous generation of cars, that would have been it. Even if Leclerc’s tyres started fading, Verstappen would have had no chance of recovering as he too would have risked destroying his own tyres if he tried to launch a counter-offensive.

But, as the laps ticked away with the 2022 cars, and Leclerc’s tyres went off, Verstappen was able to get within striking range of the Ferrari and pounced to get past – roaring on to a victory.

It was a similar story in Miami last weekend. Leclerc led away from pole position, with Verstappen shadowing his every move.

Leclerc led at the start in Miami - but his advantage didn't last long

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

Old school F1 would have meant that things would have been pretty static until the first stops, with Verstappen likely holding back to stay out of the dirty air. But it played out very differently this time.

Verstappen was able to use his slight tyre advantage to get within DRS range of Leclerc and then pulled off his overtaking move before the first stop – securing him critical track position.

These Imola and Miami passes have delivered proof that the nature of racing in 2022 appears to be very different and that what has become important now is not just having track position at the front to run in clear air. Instead, it’s about having the quickest car for the duration and being able to exploit it.

Pirelli’s F1 chief Mario Isola noted after the Miami race how the nature of the racing has definitely changed. “In the past, it was different because the car behind was sliding more, because of how the cars were generating the downforce,” he said. “And because they were sliding more, they were having higher degradation.

“So sometimes they would need to change tyres, pushing with the new tyres and so on [to go for the undercut]. With the new tyres and new cars, I believe that this element is no more there, or much less than before.

Reduced temperature of tyre blankets has also changed the dynamic of F1 lead battles

Photo by: Erik Junius

“Even if you follow another car, you have more or less the same degradation as the car in front of you.

“In this case [in Miami], for example, Red Bull and Ferrari were very close in terms of performance. They were both pushing, because if you look at the purple lap time, it was one lap Leclerc, one lap Verstappen, then one lap Leclerc, but without a speed differential able to generate proper overtaking.”

The desire to go for an overtaking move on the leader, rather than wait for the stops, has also been exacerbated by the fact that the undercut benefit from new tyres is not as automatically guaranteed as it was before.

The lower blanket temperatures that have been mandated for this year result in it taking a bit longer for the rubber to come up to the perfect temperature – which means the instant advantage of going for an early stop is not necessarily there.

For those watching the races, it also means the age-old cynical approach of tuning in for the start of the grand prix, going off to mow the lawn and then coming back to watch the finish is no longer possible

These new characteristics of the races mean that the desire to wait for the first stops has gone, now moves can and must be made wheel-to-wheel.

And, knowing that just leading a grand prix into the first corner these days is not enough to win, means we have an all-new kind of grand prix racing.

Teams need to get on top of their cars and managing tyres, they need to ensure that cars are performing on the right part of the tracks, and there is an increased reliance on the drivers to maximise their form over the entire GP, not just around the pitstop window.

For those watching the races, it also means the age-old cynical approach of tuning in for the start of the grand prix, going off to mow the lawn and then coming back to watch the finish is no longer possible. And that’s not a bad thing.

Pattern to F1 races has been far less predictable since introduction of new rules

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool