Aston Martin technical director, Dan Fallows does not go along with the claim that, despite the rules overhaul, overtaking remains almost impossible.

While there were clear improvements last season, many believe that the subsequent tweaks to the rules, not least the raising of the floor edges, has seen a return to the situation whereby drivers are able to close in on their prey but the dirty air makes it difficult to overtake.

Fallows, who was poached from Red Bull by Aston Martin, does not agree with the claims.

"I've heard the conversations going on, but I haven't seen any data so far that sort of says that it's harder to overtake," he said.

"The drivers have their own opinions," he continued, "and I think we've seen people running the cars in slightly different specifications from each other, which does clearly make a difference. We are a few races in now, but it might even be a bit early to tell that as well."

While most agree that Baku was processional, this was surely more about the circuit, as is so often the case with street tracks, on the other hand we have seen at a number of races this year that if a driver is determined to make a pass, he will.

"There have been conversations about Baku, but I think we've seen in previous races, there's been opportunities for overtaking," said Fallows.

"There are definitely circuit dependent characteristics, so Monaco is an extreme example, but we know that there are circuits where we have to get the maximum amount out of the car in qualifying because there is a limited opportunity to overtake in the race.

"That is going to carry on for all the circuits this year, there will always be some which are easier to overtake and some which aren't."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Spindoctor, 03/06/2023 10:31

"Fallows clearly not that familiar with the empirical\scientific method. His reasoning appears to be that Ground Effect cars were "intended" to help overtaking by minimising so-called dirty air, ergo when drivers still have problems it's their problem.

Cursory examination in my testing Lab (TV set in lounge) has shown that DRS is still de rigeur (RBR aside) if drivers want to overtake cleanly with relatively few opportunities outside DRS zones...."

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2. Posted by kenji, 21/05/2023 14:29

"@max...what a gentleman you are...."

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3. Posted by Lapps, 21/05/2023 8:07

"What Team does Fallows drive for again?"

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4. Posted by Max Noble, 20/05/2023 11:53

"@Kenji - dang! I’m going to up vote you again! ;-)"

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5. Posted by kenji, 20/05/2023 10:50

"@ Max Noble An elegant solution..."

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6. Posted by Max Noble, 20/05/2023 7:57

"Yes, easy. Just like being the World Tennis, or Golf number one. It is a simple, easy-to-follow, two step process… (1) Enter tournament. (2) Win tournament. Then repeat.

So for F1 the process is (1) Catch car in front. (2) Drive past car. Then repeat until you have no cars in front.

Yup. Got to agree with Fallows - it’s easy. Getting a man on the Moon, and safely returning him, was far harder.
"

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Fallows insists overtaking isn't harder

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