DRS hailed as 'best idea ever'

Although a number of drivers had been sceptical about the DRS before the first race of the campaign - fearing it would either make overtaking too easy or not even help at all - the way it has panned out in the first three races of the campaign has been encouraging.

And Rosberg, who has both lost and gained position through the DRS, has gone so far as to reckon its introduction alongside the new Pirelli era can be singled out as the greatest regulation that F1 has seen.

Speaking exclusively to AUTOSPORT, Rosberg said: "F1 has done a brilliant job. How exciting have the races been? They have been stunning.

"There is nobody saying we are having boring races. There is overtaking left, right, and centre - everywhere. So, they have done a really, really good job and that is the most important thing that needs to be highlighted.

"The people in charge have made the sport from one year to the next so much more exciting, and that is awesome for the fans and everything. It is really cool, isn't it? It is the tyres and the rear wing.

"The rear wing - best idea ever probably, for this sport. No? And tyres also. Pirelli, everybody has been criticising them, but they have made our sport spectacular. So that is cool."

Despite Rosberg's enthusiasm for the regulation, Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali thinks it will take a bit more time to work out if the DRS is a certain success.

"We've seen three different situations in three different races, so we need to wait more to find out what is the right balance," explained the Italian. "In my view, and this is a personal view, you see the activation point of the DRS has a different effect if you are at the beginning of the race or the end of the race, depending on the tyres that you have.

"So it is a tyre effect, not related to the speed or that you are behind. It is the way the tyres behave, so we need to see what is the best solution in that respect. We saw Australia, Malaysia and China were different, but the main reason in China for overtaking was that the tyres were so different you could overtake."

As well as drivers using the DRS to overtake at the designated zone, one consequence of the straightline speed boost is that it is helping cars stay closer to each other for more of a lap - further increasing the chances of overtaking elsewhere.