Teams unanimous that new rules work

Heading into the third round of this seasons Formula One World championship, it would appear that all the teams are unanimous that new rules work for F1.

For this season Formula One have reintroduced KERS [Kinetic Energy Recovery System] for this season, have brought in the driver enabled moveable rear wing or Drag Reduction System [DRS] and gave new tyre manufacturer Pirelli a brief to design a new type of tyre for Formula One which would degrade quicker, thus creating different tyre strategies for the teams up and down the pit-lane.

In Australia there wasn't much evidence of any of the above having much of an impact on the race.

Red Bull ran without a KERS device at Melbourne and yet Sebastian Vettel stormed to pole position in qualifying on the Saturday and the race win on Sunday.

The DRS rear-wing offered little in regards to overtaking manoeuvres on the fairly short straight, while the tyres showed little drop off in terms of performance between the two compounds and Sauber's Sergio Perez completed the race with only one stop.

However in Malaysia there was much more evidence of the new regulations having an impact and that has left team chiefs from Renault, McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari pleased.

'The DRS was a cost-effective thing to put in place and on some layouts it will not work, like Australia, but when you have a straight long enough like Malaysia or China it will work and it is good.' Renault team principal Eric Boullier told Autosport Magazine.

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said: 'I suspect when you look back at Malaysia, it wasn't a bad race and I think the tyre situation and cars on the circuit preserving tyres in different stages of tyre degradation adds to the spectacle.'

'It does add an exciting dimension to the race, and I think it added another element to the race.' Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner added, while Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali agreed: 'From the spectacular point of view, people enjoy seeing the wing opening/closing and the drivers getting closer and then fighting. It is a fact and we have to live with it.

After the race on Sunday VitalF1.com ran a poll vote on our front page and asked the question: Do KERS & DRS make F1 more exciting? and it would seem the Vital F1 readers agree with Messrs Boullier, Whitmarsh, Horner and Domenicali with 63% voting yes and 37% voting no.