Aston Martin director refutes 'lack of overtaking' claims: "I haven't seen any data so far that sort of says that"

Aston Martin director Dan Fallows has refuted claims that overtaking has become difficult this season.

There has been a lot of discussion on the lack of overtaking this season. Arguably some of the more intriguing races have been the ones in Jeddah and Baku, where there was a significant drop in the number of overtakes.

That's something that has been touched upon by drivers like Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and George Russell. Fallows, though, does not think that way. Talking about the lack of overtaking, he told the media, including RacingNews365, that there hasn't been any supporting data.

"I've heard the conversations going on, but I haven't seen any data so far that sort of says that it's harder to to overtake. The drivers have their own opinions, and I think we've seen people running the cars in slightly different specifications from each other, which does clearly make a difference. We are a few races in now, but it might even be a bit early to tell that as well."

The Aston Martin director added:

"There have been conversations about Baku, but I think we've seen in previous races, there's been opportunities for overtaking. There are definitely circuit dependent characteristics, so Monaco is an extreme example, but we know that there are circuits where we have to the maximum amount out of the car in Qualifying because there is a limited opportunity to overtake in the race.

"That is going to carry on for all the circuits this year, there'll always be some which are easier to overtake and some which aren't."

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Aston Martin director might not be completely accurate in his claims

The Aston Martin director's comments about overtaking might be a bit misplaced. Compared to last season, there has been a dramatic shift in the number of overtakes.

Could the nature of cars or DRS zone getting shortened be the only reason for it? Probably not, as even tyres play a major role in aiding overtakes. With tyres that can last an entire race, drivers can push their cars without worrying about tyre degradation.

As a result, there's hardly any variance in the performance of tyres, which has arguably exacerbated things in terms of overtaing.