After the first race under the new regulations, Formula 1 highlighted the number of overtakes on its social media channels. The season opener produced a total of 120 overtaking moves, roughly three times the number from the year before. The drivers, however, were not particularly impressed, with Max Verstappen stressing in Shanghai that such figures say very little.
“Sometimes you have safety cars, virtual safety cars, so you can never say: now there were 120 overtakes and then 60. It depends on how the race unfolds. It’s not black and white that more is always better. You also have to look at how those overtakes actually happen,” the Red Bull driver explained.
