Red Bull's Mark Webber believes that the "boring" nature of the season-opening Bahrain GP does not bode well for the rest of the campaign.
The Australian says that he was taken aback by the lack of overtaking opportunities on offer during the race and feels that the newly-introduced ban on refuelling, which resulted in teams implementing one-stop strategies, is going to result in more tedium for the drivers and the fans.
"It got pretty boring," Webber told the Sydney Morning Herald when asked about Bahrain. "I spent 48 laps staring at the gearboxes of first (Michael) Schumacher and then (Jenson) Button and there was nothing I could do to pass them.
"I tried everything - different lines, pressure, everything. But they're both good drivers and neither of them made a mistake."
Webber added: "I was pretty shocked by how hard it was to overtake and it doesn't bode well for any of the one-stop races on the calendar, when everyone is going to be following pretty much the same strategy.
"We can only hope that other circuits will lend themselves to overtaking more than Sakhir."
Webber went even further in his critique of the new regulations on Twitter.
"Wow! New rules, not sure huh?" he said. "Why do they keep d*cking with it? Followed Mercedes power for the whole race, no chance to overtake - again."