Drivers say 2013-style F1 great for fans

Formula 1′s 2013 format is delivering great entertainment for fans, reckon Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Jenson Button, so drivers just have to adapt to it.

Button had described his tyre-managing two-stop strategy in China as “not the most exciting” as he let rivals past easily rather than risking accelerating degradation in battles.

But he said he had no objection to the DRS/high-degradation concept and was generally enjoying being part of it.

“I think the racing has been good fun, I was on receiving end of most of it at the last race as I was running old tyres all the time so getting overtaken, and it was not enjoyable,” said Button.

“In the past we had tyres that would last a whole race and there was no overtaking. It’s very difficult to get the right balance but we are having two to three stops, which is ideal for 2013, and there are a load of teams fighting at the front.

“I think F1 is great, I am really enjoying the racing.”

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Hamilton feels the 2013 tyre format demands new skills that he is still adapting to, but that it is a challenge he is relishing.

“There’s so much to learn and I’m always learning,” he said. “I’ve learned a couple of new techniques just in the last couple of months which have helped quite a lot.

“I do come out of a pitstop wanting to push because your instinct is that this is where valuable time can be made, but actually it’s evolving more in the direction that you don’t go absolutely flat-out in those laps.”

Massa said his criticism was that the balance between tyre compounds was not always ideal, such as in China, where the soft degraded particularly quickly.

But he believes the overall spectacle is good.

“When watching at home, I think the races are nice to see,” he said.

“It is a good direction for the sport. The problem is to choose the right distance between the tyres.

“That is the thing that they need to work on in a better direction.”

The ease of DRS passing at Shanghai also prompted criticism, but Hamilton denied the device made overtaking too easy last weekend.

“I don’t think I actually used it,” he said.

“It’s still great racing, just different.”

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/formula-one-news/f1-formula-one-news/drivers-say-2013-style-f1-great-for-fans

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