Photo: Aston Martin F1 Team
While it’s clear that F1 is onto something with these new regulations, we can’t help but notice that racing has become exceedingly strategic to the point where drivers will allow themselves to be overtaken just so they can be behind their rivals at the DRS zone activation.
There’s also an issue with the length of some DRS zones, like in Saudi Arabia where you’re pretty much guaranteed a successful overtaking if you line up behind the other car at the right time.
As you can imagine, not everyone is a fan of DRS and Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel, who watched the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix from home, believes overtaking in Formula 1 shouldn’t become solely reliant on this system, as reported by Motorsport.
“I think you can follow closer. But there is less drag effect as well and we do rely on the DRS probably more than in the past, to some extent,” said the four-time F1 champ. “The interesting bit would be to take the DRS off and see how the racing really is, and if you are able to overtake a lot better than, let’s say, in the past.”
“Ideally, we have [a] set of regulations that allows us to follow and race without DRS. DRS hasn’t been there for 70 years. It was brought in 10 years ago to help, as an experiment. I think an overtake should always be an effort and not dictated by you being in the zone and you get the DRS.”
The German driver went on to point out how in Jeddah, you had the leaders “braking for the DRS line to try and be the second one to cross that line, that’s a different type of racing. I don’t think we should go that way.”
Thankfully, there are individuals with decision making power (such as F1 managing director of motorsport, Ross Brawn), who hope the sport can reach a stage where DRS isn’t so critical anymore.
As you can imagine, not everyone is a fan of DRS and Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel, who watched the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix from home, believes overtaking in Formula 1 shouldn’t become solely reliant on this system, as reported by Motorsport.
“I think you can follow closer. But there is less drag effect as well and we do rely on the DRS probably more than in the past, to some extent,” said the four-time F1 champ. “The interesting bit would be to take the DRS off and see how the racing really is, and if you are able to overtake a lot better than, let’s say, in the past.”
“Ideally, we have [a] set of regulations that allows us to follow and race without DRS. DRS hasn’t been there for 70 years. It was brought in 10 years ago to help, as an experiment. I think an overtake should always be an effort and not dictated by you being in the zone and you get the DRS.”
The German driver went on to point out how in Jeddah, you had the leaders “braking for the DRS line to try and be the second one to cross that line, that’s a different type of racing. I don’t think we should go that way.”
Thankfully, there are individuals with decision making power (such as F1 managing director of motorsport, Ross Brawn), who hope the sport can reach a stage where DRS isn’t so critical anymore.
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