F1 New Rules

From the message boards to the Australian and British papers to the chit chat of fans and the chagrin of some of the drivers, the new rules in F1 this season opened to less than stellar reviews in Melbourne.In a nutshell, drivers were less than aggressive while trying to save their tires making for a rather boring race. But as time goes on and the drivers become more comfortable with the tire situation that will probably change. What is not likely to change is the fact that it is entirely possible that one of the upcoming races will feature the 8 drivers in the points actually finishing the GP while the other 12 pull off into the pits during the last few laps.Why do that? Simple. Finishing in the pits grants the team the opportunity to change engines whether there are two races on it or not. Now of course, no team or driver wants to consistently finish out of the points, but it happens to everyone at some point in the season. Usually more than once. Strategically this will play into teams hands. Knowing driver X will be using a week old engine, it is highly likely that another team could take advantage of that situation with a fresh engine.The other big rule change that was really evident was in qualifying. Now chances are that the weather in Melbourne over the weekend was an exception rather than a rule, but what if it isn’t? What if each week the weather is dicey on Saturday and clear on Sunday? Is it fair to penalize teams based on weather? I’m certainly not a Ferrari apologist but this whole thing just stinks of doing something to level the playing field. And that is what kills me. Why would Bernie and Max enact rules to hurt their beloved Ferrari?The next couple of races in Malaysia and Bahrain should be interesting. Bahrain most likely will be consistent, weather-wise, but Kuala Lumpur can be rainy one day and hot and humid, but sunny the next. If Ferrari and BAR get screwed again will there be changes made? What if Renault gets fucked this time? Stay tuned and don’t be surprised if there isn’t some new rules in place by the time the teams get back to racing in Europe.