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Double DRS zone from Canadian GP

The FIA will allow the DRS to be used twice in race conditions in future, starting from next month's Canadian Grand Prix

The DRS will be available to drivers both on the back straight, on the approach to Turn 11, and on the start/finish straight in Canada, according to FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting.

This will allow drivers to open the DRS on the back straight, close it again for the right/left Turn 11/12 combination and then re-open it on the run to Turn 1.

There will also be two zones for the European Grand Prix at Valencia, which follows Canada. The first will be located between Turn 10 and Turn 12, with the second between Turn 14 and Turn 17.

"The DRS zone will be on the last straight and the pits straight," said Whiting when asked by AUTOSPORT to confirm where the two zones will be in Canada..
"There will be one detection zone. The initial detection will be after Turn 10, then they can have another go [on the main straight]."

Although the FIA has allocated single overtaking zones so far this season, Whiting revealed that the technology had only become available to run multiple sectors ahead of the Turkish Grand Prix.

However, he considered the software to be too new to use it for the race at Istanbul Park.

"We only had the software available to us in Turkey," said Whiting. "I thought it was too new [o use it there] I wanted to make sure there were no bugs in it.

"We don't think there's anywhere suitable here because they have to be consecutive straights. It becomes more complicated the further apart they are because there's more likelihood of a change in position of the drivers. So the first realistic opportunity we felt was Montreal. In Valencia, currently, it will be between Turns 10 and 12 and between 14 and 17."

Whiting also confirmed that there will be two DRS zones for the European Grand Prix at Valencia, which follows the Canada race.

However, during both Sunday's Spanish and next week's Monaco Grands Prix, there will be a single overtaking zone on the start/finish straight.

Despite criticism from some quarters that overtaking was too easy in the Turkish Grand Prix two weeks ago,Whiting believes that the length of the DRS zone was correct. He believes that the ease of overtaking was, in some cases, magnified by the speed advantage that a chasing car carried into the zone before opening the rear wing slot.

"Turkey was, I think, the right length," said Whiting. "Nico [Rosberg] was overtaken twice in the early laps. Thought that looked a bit easy, but when you actually replay it, you can see very clearly that he had a massive speed advantage before he got to the Dissector.

"I don't believe that it was wrong, it was just about right. We had lots of times when drivers couldn't actually overtake into Turn 12. But when you examine the speed deltas, that explains why we had some easy overtaking there, in my view."

Whiting confirmed that there would be no change to the plan to allow the DRS to be used unrestricted during qualifying and the race in Monaco.

Some drivers, described by Whiting as "a majority", believed that the DRS would be dangerous if used in Monaco, with the tunnel section in particular causing concern.

However, when the concerns were discussed in Turkey, there was not unanimous agreement among the drivers to prevent its use.

"I've spoken to the drivers a few times about it and it was quite clear that the majority of them did not want to use it in Monaco," said Whiting. "However, there is no evidence to support the theory that it is unsafe.

"Obviously, we are not waiting for an accident to happen, but there is simply no evidence to support the theory that it is going to be dangerous.

"So as it has been introduced as an overtaking aid, it would be somewhat perverse not to allow it in the place where you need overtaking the most. There is no reason not to use it in Monaco as far as we can see."

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