Off the back of the weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix comes a mindboggling set of statistics: combined the 24 drivers pulled off over 100 overtaking manoeuvres (an average of two per lap), with the field completing no less than 59 tyre changes.

Contrast that with the recent past, when the overall order of the top eight possibly changed once or twice, with the total number of pit stops seldom exceeding 24 – if, that is, the full field made it to the first pit stop ‘window’. In fact, so durable were last year’s tyres that on certain circuits the sport’s smoother drivers took the start on Bridgestone’s prime compound, then ran the distance on that set, pitting only on the penultimate lap for compulsory stops.

In Sunday’s sweltering heat, stifling humidity and conspicuous absence of widely predicted monsoon rain, the race’s first stops came on Lap 9, with most drivers pitting thrice and the likes of Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton stopping four times. Another stat: Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi was the only points scorer to pit twice.

In fact, the overall number of stops would likely have hit 80 had all 24 cars finished, equalling around 1,5 stops for every one of the race’s 56 laps.

The grid formation and race result numbers are no less impressive. Fans readily recall races with Noah Ark’s grids (lining up in pairs, side by side), with the final order being nothing but an extension of that order; Saturday’s preliminary runs, though, saw no less than six different makes fill the first five rows, with the 10^th (of 12 rows) being the first to feature team-mates.

Come Sunday’s race three different teams were represented on the podium and four in the top five. A run down of the final order shows that only Ferrari drivers Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso, Force India’s duo and Toro Rosso’s pairings crossed the line consecutively. The other 11 classified finishers were separated from their team-mates by anything up to a lap.

2011 was, of course, touted as the Year of Overtaking, with three different technological features being introduced for this season by the powers-that-be in order to ‘spice’ the show.

Thus KERS – F1’s hybrid drive device, which provides a boost of 80bhp for six seconds each lap – made its return after a hiatus of 12 months, while a drag-reduction system (effectively a rear wing which flattens on demand to reduce drag and increase straight-line speed) and rapidly degrading tyres (forcing pit stops; increasing unpredictability) were introduced.

Taking last-mentioned first, Pirelli bravely accepted the challenge of supplying compounds with high wear rates despite the battering its image as a producer of premium, durable tyres would receive, and the resultant unpredictability certainly improved the spectacle. Hands up those who thought both opening races were boring – despite champions Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing disappearing into the distance from pole position twice in succession.

While the DRS was ineffective in Melbourne due to the urban circuit’s short straights, it came into its own in Sepang, facilitating overtaking moves left, right, and - at one stage - centre. Basically DRS provides the attacker with a 12-15 km/h top speed advantage, but only under certain circumstances within a predetermined ‘zone’, while the victim may not counter with his system unless also in overtaking mode.

Contrived, yes, but it worked, as proven by Alonso: the Spaniard lost his DRS after 15 laps, and later was unable to pass Hamilton while others, in less fancied machinery, had little trouble passing the tyre-stricken Briton.

KERS played an equally crucial role in the overtaking fest that was in Malaysia: 80 horses for six seconds obviously provides a welcome top-end boost, but the additional acceleration delivered by the system was amply demonstrated at the start by Webber: his KERS went into ‘safe’ mode on the formation grid. Come the start the Australian went from fourth to ninth in one fraught move as those around him used their hybrid systems to full effect.

That the three measures earned their collective keep was proven over 100 times in Sepang, raising the question of whether overtaking in F1, once a rare spectacle, has now become too easy. After all, at one stage we saw a Lotus, on good rubber and using DRS but without KERS as the team has yet to fit the device, easily overtake a Mercedes on shot rubber.

Sure, an excess of overtaking is better than none – even if artificially contrived – but the authorities need to retain Formula 1’s integrity by not allowing it to degenerate into WWF1. On Sunday it came close…