During the start of the season some fans and commentators were annoyed at the introduction of DRS, Drag Reduction System, to the sport, saying that it made overtaking too easy and therefore made racing artificial. Some drivers and fans still feel this way but as the new season is just over 2 months away, I’m going to take a look at just exactly what DRS has done.
For those of you who don’t know, DRS stands for Drag Reduction system and it really is quite simple. At certain parts of the track if a driver is 1 second or less behind the driver infront of them, they have the ability to open their rear wing, as the picture to the left shows. This reduces downforce to give to car up to 8 mp/h or 12 km/h extra miles an hour with the intention of assisting overtaking.
On the majority of tracks there was one DRS zone, however some tracks such as Canada or Abu Dhabi had two DRS zones.
Two DRS zones was pretty pointless to be honest. The driver behind just before the first DRS zone would use it to overtake the driver infront and then on the second DRS zone they’d get overtaken by the driver they’d just overtaken. If that makes sense. So I hope we don’t see two DRS zones again.
I don’t really like DRS to be honest on the principle that it’s not raw racing however, for me DRS worked perfectly when it allowed the driver to get a little closer and then overtake a few corners later and on a few occasions that happened. However at some tracks it made overtaking too easy.
My main issue with this is that it’s an unfair advantage on the driver behind. The driver infront can’t deploy DRS in his defence so he just has to sit there and wait to be overtaken and then may spend the next few laps being held up. So in that respect it makes racing very artificial for me.
Lets not forget Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso’s little incident where the DRS malfunctioned and opened all on it’s own. I believe it was geniune, though there are people who don’t, either way it gave him an unfair advantage. One the other hand there were times when some drivers couldn’t get their DRS to open, meaning they were at a disadvantage. Obviously a malfunction isn’t something that can be helped but if DRS won’t work a driver will be at a severe disadvantage, this is why I don’t like these little gadgets.
Before the season starts I think DRS needs to be seriously reviewed. We’ve been to each track on the calendar now, aside from the Circuit of the Americas, so we know how it worked last year. So if it was too easy then shorten the section of track it can be used for and in the interest of fairness, where it didn’t work lengthen the section of track it can be used for or change the section of track it can be used for. Whatever the FIA do, lets not see anymore double DRS zones okay chaps and chapesses? What I want to hear in response is ‘Yes Rosie’.
Personally I’m not a fan of these little contraptions that stop racing being real racing. If it were up to me I’d get rid of DRS, KERS and the blue flag rule. Oh and Bernie please please don’t ever think about installing glorified sprinklers on the track, if you’re going to do that you may as well have a banana skin cannon and turtle shells and turn it into Formula Mario Kart.
What do you think about DRS? Has it made racing artificial? Do you want to see it got rid of or more of it?
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