The promise of more overtaking in this year's Formula One championship is doomed to fail, drivers said on Thursday. A series of new and complicated rules have been introduced to the sport this season as part of an attempt to stop races from becoming a procession. The changes include modifications to car engines, tires and aerodynamics but the jury is still out on whether the new rules will make any difference. A controversial plan to award the drivers' title to the man who wins most races rather than most points has already been scrapped for this season after complaints from drivers and there are doubts whether the other rules will have their desired effect. “It's only my second full season in Formula One but I remember the beginning of last year everyone was going crazy about traction control and (predicting) the cars would spin off and there would much more overtaking,” Germany's Red Bull driver Sebastien Vettel told a news conference on Thursday. Briton Jenson Button said the return of slick tires after 11 years of grooved tires made handling easier but any gains in speed had been lost by the aerodynamic changes to the front and rear wings. “I really love the way the tires work compared to the grooves. Especially the front of the car,” said Button, driving for the new Brawn GP team. The introduction of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), which stored unused energy that can be released with the push of a button, has only added to the confusion. With the non-compulsory system dependent upon drivers' weight, not everyone expects to benefit from it. FIA rejects protests F1 stewards cleared Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams to race in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Thursday after rejecting the protests of three rival teams. After six hours of deliberation at the Albert Park circuit, FIA said the officials had dismissed protests by Red Bull, Renault and champions Ferrari. The three had the right to appeal, however. Should they do so, any final decision is likely to be deferred to an FIA court of appeal hearing after next month's Malaysian race. Hamilton joins union McLaren's Lewis Hamilton has finally joined the Grand Prix Drivers' Association after winning the Formula One world championship last year. The 24-year-old Briton had resisted joining what amounts to the drivers' union in his first two seasons in the sport but he told reporters at the Australian Grand Prix on Thursday that he had relented.
