Auto Racing|Formula 1 Has New Rules. Let’s Explain How It’s Changed Overtaking.

The new Formula 1 technical regulations that began this year have strikingly changed how racecars are driven, especially the way drivers pass, or overtake, each other. While putting the pedal to the metal has long been a motor racing staple, with so much power now coming from a car’s battery, overtaking has become more nuanced.

“It certainly is very complicated,” Oscar Piastri of McLaren Racing said about the regulations. “I tried to explain the sport to my friends in the off-season, and it was a pretty long conversation with a lot of follow-up questions.”

Under the revised power-unit regulations, there is a 50-50 split between the internal combustion engine and electrical energy, while the modes Boost and Overtake can provide a pursuing car a brief spurt of additional energy to aid in overtaking.

The Drag Reduction System (D.R.S), the overtaking aid in the last set of regulations from 2011 through 2025, in which the rear wing would open and give a driver a speed advantage, is gone. The cars now have front and rear wings that can be deployed on some straights.

Drivers and teams must also determine where and how to best use their energy across a lap, which has resulted in what some drivers have called “yo-yo racing,” with multiple instances of drivers passing and repassing each other. A driver will deplete his battery (until it recharges during the race) to obtain the speed to pass, but then not have enough energy to defend his position from the driver he just left behind.

In Australia in March, for example, the first Grand Prix under the new regulations, George Russell of Mercedes and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari swapped places six times in nine laps during the early stages of the race.