Budkowki expects 'a lot of one stop races' due to new rules

Renault technical chief Marcin Budkowski believes that an increase in fuel and harder tyres will lead to one-stop races in 2019. 

New rules for the 2019 season are aimed at improving the competitiveness of Formula 1. Budkowski believes that it will also limit the number of pitstops. Tyres are set to be simpler and harder to allow drivers to push more and cars are now allowed an extra 5kg of fuel. 

“There were a number of races, even last year, [where] people were not taking 105kg but were taking even less because the disadvantage of carrying more fuel is that the car is slower because the weight of the car is higher,” Budkowski explained to crash.net.

“It’s always a compromise between the quantity of fuel. But there were a number of races were even at 105kg, fuelling completely the tank, wouldn’t allow you to race properly and the amount of fuel saving that teams had to do during the race was very significant.

“Couple this with some tyre saving, and obviously there was a number of races where the drivers were really managing the pace rather than pushing the car.

“The steps that have been taken in terms of increasing the fuel capacity should allow, at these specific races, the drivers to push as hard as they want to push. Couple that with the tyre choices which are probably a bit more conservative than last year, there will be less tyre saving."

“The issue here is that we are going to have a lot of one-stop races, I think most of the races will be one-stop races this year, but on the other hand, the drivers will be able to push on the tyres rather than not.”