The bold F1 DRS experiment that could end the debate forever

Formula 1’s call out to fans this week to help vote for the overtake of the year has served to reignite the impact – good or bad – that DRS still has on the racing action. With the winter break offering time to reflect on the best moments of the past season, choosing specific best passes has thrown into the spotlight an inconvenient truth about 2022.

There were too many times throughout the year when getting within DRS range meant an overtaking move on the car ahead became guaranteed, not something exceptional to celebrate. DRS was never meant to be like that. When it was originally introduced in 2011, it had come in response to year after year where overtakes had been nigh-on impossible.

As the F1 grid grew more competitive, and the performance differential between cars shrunk, being a few tenths quicker than the driver in front was not enough to get past. That turned races into processions. What DRS was supposed to do was make a pass possible – but not inevitable.

The much-missed former F1 race director Charlie Whiting championed the introduction of DRS in F1, and knew that, while it had its critics, it was essential to helping allow the possibility of racing action. He was obsessive about ensuring that the location and length of the DRS activation zones were such that it did not make things too easy for drivers.

Speaking at the Autosport International Show one year regarding DRS, he said: "I know some people are opposed to it and really think it is not pure enough. I completely disagree with that view. It still requires extreme skill from the driver. It is not as if it's turn on, overtake, go, done."

Sadly, there were too many times this year when DRS did make things too easy, and passing became what Ross Brawn called recently "ritualistic".

“The one thing we know is fans, and we know this because we don’t like it, they don’t like the ‘go down the straight, pop the DRS, overtake, drive fast, pull a gap’ all of that,” he told us at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. “I think, in an ideal world, DRS is used just to get on the back of someone, so you can really have a decent attack.”

He added: “I think we shouldn’t be afraid to reduce the DRS in places like Monza, because it does seem a bit ‘you get on the back of them, press the button, overtake.’ It’s a bit ritualistic, isn’t it? It’s not very impressive. And so we shouldn’t be afraid to reduce the use of DRS where it's clearly proving to be too powerful.”

DRS was introduced in 2011 to help boost overtaking opportunities

Photo by: Sutton Images

What seems key to DRS being an accepted benefit, rather than an annoying gimmick, is in getting the DRS zones right. When DRS makes an overtake inevitable, then that means the activation zone is too long. Thankfully, the FIA seems on top of this and accepts that things can be improved for 2023 now that it has a year of experience of how the new ground-effect cars race.

The FIA’s single-seater technical director Nikolas Tombazis has confirmed that thoughts will be given to shrinking some zones next year.

“In some races, we may well need to actually reduce the DRS zones,” he said. “We don’t want overtaking to be, as we say, inevitable or actually easy. It still has to be a fight. If it happens too quickly, if you just see a car approaching and then going by and disappearing, it's actually worse than being at the back and fighting. It needs the right balance to be found there.”

"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" Sebastian Vettel

One aspect that also is perhaps not appreciated enough is how DRS zones are also a way of improving the racing through keeping cars closer together. A lot of the time the obsession is on looking at DRS zones as places to pull a move off. However, at some venues, they can be used as a way of allowing pursing drivers to gain a tenth or two on the car ahead – which can then put them in a position to attack a few corners later.

That was the thinking behind having four zones at Melbourne this year, including one on the high-speed run to Turn 9. But that was removed ahead of final free practice after what was understood to be some gamesmanship lobbying from Fernando Alonso. It was suggested he most likely believed that the extra zone was helping rival teams who had a more effective DRS or were using the open wing to help alleviate some of the early season porpoising problems.

After the Australian GP proved less than spectacular, several drivers rued the fact that the fourth zone was not there for the race. While F1 has often talked about an ideal world where DRS can be parked because the cars are good enough for overtaking, that is unlikely to be under this current rules cycle.

Interlagos is a venue where running without DRS could perhaps be tested

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

And, in fact, rather than rein back on DRS use, the current push appears to be to make the racing even more reliant on it next year. For the six 2023 sprint events, trials will take place to allow DRS to be activated from the end of the opening lap. The idea is that by not letting cars break free of DRS during the first two times around the circuit, the track action can be sustained at a higher tempo throughout.

However, perhaps at one of the sprints (and maybe somewhere where overtaking is easier like Interlagos), F1 should go down a route that Sebastian Vettel has suggested to have a trial in the opposite direction. Speaking at the start of the year, he said: "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. I'm only a bit cautious for the DRS, because it was brought in as an assistance to help overtaking, but now it feels a bit like it's the only thing that allows you to overtake at times."

There would be no better platform to test what life in F1 would be like without DRS than a Saturday sprint. It would be the perfect opportunity to give us a definite answer about just how much the overtaking aid contributes to the action. There could be some surprise for its critics about how it remains a necessarily evil for good racing in F1.

Sprint races could provide the perfect opportunity to experiment with DRS rules

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