{"id":283936,"date":"2025-11-14T12:34:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T12:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/283936\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T12:34:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T12:34:14","slug":"forcing-two-pit-stops-could-make-races-worse-f1-team-bosses-warn-%c2%b7-racefans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/283936\/","title":{"rendered":"Forcing two pit stops could make races worse, F1 team bosses warn \u00b7 RaceFans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Formula 1 team bosses have warned plans to make races more exciting by forcing drivers to make two pit stops could backfire.<\/p>\n

The idea has been put forward as many races this year have been won by drivers making only the single change of tyre compound which is required by the regulations.<\/p>\n

However team bosses suspect forcing strategists to incorporate two pit stops per race will lead to less variety. \u201cI think everyone likes two stops or more, but we have to be careful,\u201d said Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur strategy and tyre guys are looking at it closely. I think one of the things that makes a two-stop race tricky is when the tyres aren\u2019t really suited for two stops. So you need to have tyres that demand a two-stop race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you force a two-stop, you can end up with everyone doing the same strategy and actually have the opposite effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stella said the current rules allow for more varied strategies which have produced unpredictable races in the past. Forcing drivers to make two pit stops would end that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen plenty of races with one guy on a one-stop and one guy on a two-stop, and then the guy on a one-stop being chased down by the two-stop \u2013 but that [would] obviously disappear. So I think we need to think very carefully, and we are. I\u2019m sure the F1 Commission will debate it, and I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll come to the right answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Williams team principal James Vowles, who previously worked as a strategist at Mercedes, agreed \u201cmy biggest worry would be that we end up, all of us, doing the same strategy to within a lap of each other because you\u2019re forced that way because of the two stops.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Marcus<\/a>Report: Pirelli doubt two mandatory pit stops would improve racing<\/a>\u201cLet\u2019s get the key foundations right, which is tyre degradation and the gaps between the tyres,\u201d he continued. \u201cI don\u2019t mind a forced rule then that puts us in that circumstance, but I have a worry that immediately where we are now, I think you\u2019ll get less variability in next year\u2019s races and that concerns me.\u201d<\/p>\n

F1 will introduce the biggest change to its technical regulations for many years next season, requiring teams to design new power units and chassis. McLaren\u2019s Andrea Stella said that will make it hard to judge whether a change in the tyre rule is needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 2026 we have so much change going on and I think we should observe also what kind of racing we are going to have before we change the technical side and also the rules of the game. So I would invoke a little bit of prudence from this point of view.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s observe what happens in 2026, and then we can adapt from a sporting point of view to make sure that the entertainment and the racing is at the right level.\u201d<\/p>\n

F1 introduced a one-off rule change for this year\u2019s Monaco Grand Prix which forced drivers to change tyres twice. As a result, many teams ordered their drivers to deliberately lap slowly and hold up rival cars so those ahead of them could change tyres.<\/p>\n

Several drivers criticised the rule afterwards, calling it \u201ca very ugly race\u201d and \u201cnot really how we want to go racing.\u201d<\/a> However F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said it was \u201cthe right attempt\u201d and \u201cthe good thing is that we are talking about it.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

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Formula 1
\nBrowse all Formula 1 articles<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 1 team bosses have warned plans to make races more exciting by forcing drivers to make two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-283936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}