Time to ditch DRS?

[GrizzleBoy]

Most of the onboards of cars I saw making the actual important passes were already halfway towards being side by side at the DRS activation line anyway.

Mostly due to the fact that the cars in front had dead tyres on and had no traction out of the hairpin.

[QLDriver]

That said, DRS seems like a sticking plaster over a different problem...

Exactly. Both the car principles and the circuit design I'd say. Given the 'parade-fests' that we had for most of the previous decade where people would get within a second and then... stall... taking it away seems likely to return to that (today notwithstanding).

[scuderiafan]

I believe that it is too early to dispatch the DRS. Give it 3 or so more years, and then take it off. They could actually do it in 2014 as part of the aerodynamic rule changes. It wouldn't make sense to get rid of it so early.

[bhall]

Nothing gets a three-year trial in F1; by then it would be five.

At any rate, I posed this question from a safety point of view, given Schumacher's retirement today. But, we always seem to fall into the same discussion.

[rjsa]

I think it's a very fine line between races that still need DRS and races that don't.

Today clearly the variation of tyre tactics made the DRS a bad thing.FA would have given a big fight to LH and RG if DRS wasn't there.

But I don't think it's obsolete yet.

[Ray]

For me it is quite simple. If you don't want to get DRS'ed... stay 1 second in front. If you can't stay one second in front you deserved to get overtaken.

Just ask Alonso in Abu-dahbi 2010.

Drivers ahead are put on unequal footing simply for "excitement" for the fans. I don't think F-Ducts should have been banned because that was at the drivers discretion on its use. This? Manufactured and regulated to be used only when it is of no real use. Drafting has been vital to Formula 1 for years and having a push to pass button makes driver decision on when to draft and when to hop out and try for a divebomb a thing of the past and in my opinion useless. Being one second ahead without DRS doesn't mean you'll be overtaken and it doesn't mean you'll be able to prevent the driver from behind overtaking you. With DRS the chances are improved by an amount that never existed. How many races have we seen where the lead guy was able to defend on straights for laps on end and the guy behind just couldn't get around him? That's racing. DRS is MarioKart crap and deserves no place in Formula 1. If you're going to give them a boost to pass allow the drivers to use it whenever and wherever they want. If they want to both use it and KERS then so be it. It's no different with them both using it than if neither had it at all.

[Lycoming]

I find it a little odd that this stuck wing is being argued against on safety grounds by the same people who argued against closed canopies because they took away too much danger from the sport.

[Red Schneider]

I have always been against DRS, but from a safety point of view this is practically a non-issue. The failure rate has been established as trivial.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I don't think a DRS failure was particularly dangerous here. To me it's really only dangerous if it fails to close through a high-speed turn, for obvious reasons. There are no high-speed turns at Gilles Villeneuve. Even if it failed to close on the run down to the hairpin, the car would still have plenty of stopping power and I would not expect much of an incident at all.

On an even less-related note I wish they were a little less safety-concious in F1 sometimes. For example they are way too trigger-happy with the Safety Car in wet races.

[Ray]

I find it a little odd that this stuck wing is being argued against on safety grounds by the same people who argued against closed canopies because they took away too much danger from the sport.

That's a broad brush to paint those of us against closed canopies with. There are more than enough reasons to be against them and none of them have anything to do with taking away danger. Maybe you should search the threads around here about that subject before labeling those of us against them.

[Cam]

So, is it time to ditch DRS?

Yes. It wasn't a great idea to start with (okay concept, terrible execution). To facilitate more overtaking is fine, there's many ways to achieve this without leaving a car stranded from being able to defend itself or removing the skill of the driver. Gone are the bonsai dives into corners, where cars may clash and the true skill was shown as he somehow fond the limit of adhesion and pulled the car up an into the corner - side by side. Now we all just wait 90 seconds until they cross the line and push the button. The added excitement - is boring.

But this is what the kids want - overtaking, even if there's no skill in it, it counts on paper and makes the "we had 65 overtaking moves last race" sound like the greatest spectacle ever beheld by man.

I'd trade the 65 for 5 or 6 brilliant moves that we all talked about for years to come and showed the real skill of man and machine - any day.

[Lycoming]

My apologies, I should have been more clear. I did not mean to imply that ALL people against closed canopies are of that view.

[Teechnical]

Or maybe what the FIA should do is ban DRS for some certain races where overtaking is already very possible, say Montreal or Spa or Brazil.

[Cam]

Or maybe what the FIA should do is ban DRS for some certain races where overtaking is already very possible, say Montreal or Spa or Brazil.

Why have features for certain tracks only? They should either have features that work across all tracks, or not at all. Ditch DRS and bring in something that encourages/allows better dive bombing into corners. How/what that is - I have no idea. At least there's a challenge and risk with overtaking at a corner, as opposed to a long boring straight. I could actually hold my breath in an overtaking manoeuvre for once.

[raymondu999]

Why have features for certain tracks only?

In short, because not all tracks were made equal. Different tracks have different levels of passing ease. The way DRS is implemented now - the differing DRS zone lengths - is already a step in this direction anyways.

Ditch DRS and bring in something that encourages/allows better dive bombing into corners. How/what that is - I have no idea.

Ground effect?

[Cam]

Ground effect?

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