Barrichello blames narrow front tires

Williams driver Rubens Barrichello blames this year's narrower front tires as the main reason behind the lack of overtaking at the first F1 race in Bahrain.

The front tires were made narrower this year at Bridgestone's request. But Barrichello thinks the decision was misjudged.

"The fact that we had better racing last year was because we dropped the ugly grooved tires for slicks," he said. "That's what we need – we need more mechanical grip on the car and to lose the aerodynamics. We're losing aerodynamics all the time, but if you follow another car you just understeer off the track. Unless you have a second advantage, which is not the normal thing, you just can't pass. I overtook [Sebastien] Buemi on the track but I was doing 2:01s, he was doing 2:04s, and it wasn't easy overtaking. You cannot follow, the front of the car washes out. When you put the throttle back on with lots of lock, you lose the back end so the car in front just goes away.

But he warned against making any rash decisions to alter the regulations this year until there is a full understanding of the situation.

"It's not the weakness of the tire, it's the weakness of the rule," Barrichello added. "We need more mechanical grip, it's the only solution. It's very dodgy to overtake a car in front because we don't have the front tires. I hope there is something [changed], but first of all I think we need to wait four or five races before we actually take a conclusion on how it is."