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Formula 1 will not be getting rid of the Drag Reduction System (DRS) in the short future, according to managing director of motorsport Ross Brawn. DRS was introduced in 2011 to allow more overtaking on track.
The flap at the rear wing opens when a car is less than one second behind a competitor during a race and allows the car to gain 10–12 km/h down a straight. However, many have questioned the system, stating that it only creates artificial racing.
But DRS proved to be vital during the 2017 season. While it did, on occasion, allow for an easy pass, there were occurrences when the system allowed the car behind to pull alongside the driver ahead and make the overtake into the corner, rather than on the straight.
And Brawn says that while DRS may leave the sport eventually, it will not be anytime soon: "My hope is that when we identify how the cars should evolve in the future, that may be a feature we can turn off. But I don’t see it disappearing in the near future. It's a necessary Band-Aid because of the nature of the cars at the moment."
With overtaking down by 47% in 2017 compared to 2016, F1 is investigating how to make cars naturally follow each other to allow overtaking without an artificial device or method: "That’s our objective. And unlike the DRS, it won’t be a switch we turn on overnight, it will be an evolution of the cars. Each step we make has got to be in that direction.
"In other words we create a model, and that model means as you plug features in, you can see whether the raceability of the cars improves or deteriorates. And that model won’t only be an aerodynamic model, it will be a model that will have to include the tyre characteristics and engine characteristics and other factors on the car, where we put different elements in to help us understand whether what we are doing is making the racing better or worse. And that’s something we’ve lacked. We’ve been using our intuition, and that’s not good enough now with the complexity of these cars."
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
Replies (11)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
If it'll continue to be as subtle as it was in 2017 I dont see why we shouldnt keep it.
f1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
Until F1 returns to the ways of the past then yes I agree
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
It wont.
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
Maybe I'm no aerodynamicist, but I thought the problem was clearly the amount of turbulence generated by significant increase in aero bits of the last few years. Is there a reason F1 needs to have so much aero compared to what we had 15 years ago for example? It's true the cars are faster, but I don't think many people care about marginally faster F1 cars if they are not racing wheel to wheel.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Thats the contradictory bit when it comes to technical sports like F1. People love numbers (and no, these are not just marginally faster, if last year's numbers are anything to go by), but they also love close racing. People think better numbers means better action. Usually it doesnt. Im not necessarily against having more aero than we used to, but I think it could be sound to tone it down a bit in favour of more mechanical grip. I realize mechanical grip has it's own set of limitations, but it doesnt hamper the racing as much.
As a side note: I find it very cool that the current cars are significantly faster compared to what we've had earlier, despite being pretty darn heavy.
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
My comparisons were mostly to cars pre 2004. But the truth is that I don't think most fans can tell the difference if a car is 2s or 3s faster. Especially when so much aero makes the car appear incredibly stable while cornering. However, fans can definitely tell when cars are racing close to each other, when they can push the cars without fear of destroying the tyres in one attempt, or at the very least, follow each other closely. I think 2017 cars were some of the best looking cars F1 has ever produced. I the big tyres are definitely a big plus. I just think that even with minor changes like limiting the size of the front and back wings, it would significantly minimize turbulence. But again, maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.
Pauli
Posts: 140
Actual modern F1 cars have only marginally more downforce than on many seasons 15-30 years ago but they have much more votexes around car controlling air flow. The reasons for worse aerodynamics range from multiple rules that either have tried to slow down cars to improve safety or make driving artificially harder by banning technologies. Those band have resulted to development towards similar downforce levels without impacting driving difficulty that much. But real result has been that teams learned to build vortexes around cars because optimal configurations for smooth surface airflows aren't allowed.
Pauli
Posts: 140
Plus there is no such thing as mechanical grip! ;) What could be called mechanical grip is simple tyre compound and temperature effect on tyre compound. But we won't be seeing enough improvements there to ever offset importance of downfoce component.
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
@Pauli What do you mean by vortexes around the cars?
kngrthr
Posts: 203
remove the plank, give engineers the floor back and reduce wing size, especially the front
Major Tom
Posts: 152
I don't particularly object to DRS and it certainly improves the racing. Also I can't see anybody ever succeeding in reducing the bad effects of the wake from cars - not when every team must see the competitive advantages of having as disruptive a wake as possible.