Max Verstappen and George Russell have offered their views on the possibility of a mandatory two-stop minimum rule mooted for Formula 1 from next season.
Reports earlier this week suggested the F1 Commission will meet to discuss the idea of implementing the rule, in the hope of aiding the entertainment value of races.
It appeared that F1’s tyre provider Pirelli was positive about the idea, after its Motorsport Director Mario Isola was quoted as saying it would be “better for the show”.
The change would be yet another amongst a plethora that comes in as F1 begins a new era of technical regulations from 2026.
However, the changes themselves are likely to lead to a drastic difference in how races will run and potentially more overtaking anyway.
This was something Verstappen pointed out ahead of this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, saying that there are “a lot of unknowns” to make the idea a good one.
“Yeah, I mean, the cars again have been a bit more difficult to follow,” he admitted to media including Motorsport Week.
“And then in some races, when you stay within a second, the tyres overheat quite quickly and it’s quite tough to put a move on.
“Also because most of the cars are within 2-3 tenths, so then the pace advantage is not big enough unless something crazy happens with a Safety Car.
“So yeah, we’ll see. I mean, maybe, yes, it will be better if they do that.
“But for sure people will be screaming as well at the same time next year when it comes at the wrong time that you have to do a two-stop or whatever. So you will always keep that.
“But again, also next year there are so many question marks in general about the car engine anyway, besides forcing a two-stop, let’s say like that. So a lot of unknowns.”
Tyre delta a key anomaly in potential two-stop F1 rule change – Russell
Russell was also quizzed on the subject and gave a technical insight into how the idea may fail.
“I think it then needs to be coupled with Softer tyres,” he replied when asked how the plan could improve racing.
“If the tyres are still not degrading and it’s easy to do a two-stop, then you’re still not going to see that. We call it like a tyre delta.
“So, you’ve got a delta between the pace of the cars and then when it’s coupled with a tyre delta, that’s when you see the overtakes.
“But if there’s no tyre delta, it doesn’t matter if you do a two-stop, three-stop, one-stop, you probably won’t overtake.”
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