Reigning world champion Jenson Button rather unscientifically believes that there will be some "crazy" tactical calls and pit stop strategies on display during the 2010 season, as the teams get used to life under the refuelling ban.
With refuelling banned, teams will only be making pit stops for tyre changes, with practice stops during the recent test at Barcelona taking as little as three seconds.
And Button thinks that the new rules will allow for some mixed-up strategies throughout the grid, as some of the smaller teams jostle for position with the big guns on the track.
"I think, looking at testing, we are going to get a lot of very unusual strategies in the race," Button said on Monday.
"I think the top teams will have similar strategies. I think you are going to have some teams trying to sort of stop two or three laps before their rivals so they can get out on new tyres and maybe bump them.
"You'll also have the teams that aren't so competitive trying crazy strategies like pitting after lap one and hoping to run to the end of the race. So there will be lots of different strategies which will make it exciting for the viewers and exciting for you guys. But the problem is that for us it's very difficult to know what the strategy is."
He added that: "You can't plan in advance. All you can do is go through every scenario and be ready when you have to jump on a strategy change, because it's really dependant on what the people around you are doing with strategy.
"It's going be a busy Sunday afternoon for the engineers. They have to try and read every situation."
Button also insisted that his own driving style, renowned as one of the smoothest in Formula One, will suit the new rules, though he admits that he will have to adapt for the rule change that will place a greater emphasis on tyre conservation.
"My driving style I think it does work with the new regulations," he claimed, "I think most drives on the grid can adapt to it, we've seen that in testing. It's still a different way of driving for me because it is like an endurance race.
"It's like driving at Le Mans, you really have to look after the tyres at the start of the stint. If you damage the tyres on lap three you are screwed for the whole stint. You really have to be very gentle with the car.
"Sometimes it just feels like you are driving around, instead of pushing the car, but you can still get a good lap time out of it, which I suppose is a positive. It's going to be an interesting afternoon in Bahrain."
He concluded that: "I think we are going to learn a lot there. We've learned a lot already, but we'll really understand what other people are up to and what sort of strategies are going to work for us for the rest of the year."
In terms of where McLaren will start the season, Button said that the McLaren car looked gooled.ver long runs at the recent Barcelona test.
"In Jerez I think Lewis and myself found it reasonably difficult and I think it's because it was so cold. It's difficult to get the tyres working," he admitted.
"But in Barcelona on my run on Saturday it was still quite difficult because it rained that morning, but I overtook Rubens twice, I overtook Nico, I overtook Pedro, I overtook a lot of people on my long run, so the pace was obviously good.
"Compared to the Ferrari if you look at the race distance we did, we came on top compared to the Ferrari, but again you don't know what they are doing."
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