DRS zones on all the 2013 tracks.

[gloomyDAY]

DRS-Zonen 2013: 17 Formel 1-Strecken mit zwei DRS-Zonen (Bildergalerie, Bild 12) - AUTO MOTOR UND SPORT

NASCAR!

[EuroTroll]

This is probably the right place to have a discussion about DRS in general.

Am I alone in thinking that DRS is a good thing?

Why do I think that?
- Well, the whole point of motor racing is to sort out who is the fastest. The fastest car should finish first. DRS helps to achieve that.
- It doesn't IMO give a permanent unfair advantage to the pursuing car (A) over the pursued car (B) - only a temporary one. If A overtakes B and the two cars are equally fast, B will have an advantage over A in the next DRS zone. It evens out.

Your thoughts?

[steveaki13]

This is probably the right place to have a discussion about DRS in general.

Am I alone in thinking that DRS is a good thing?

Why do I think that?
- Well, the whole point of motor racing is to sort out who is the fastest. The fastest car should finish first. DRS helps to achieve that.
- It doesn't IMO give a permanent unfair advantage to the pursuing car (A) over the pursued car (B) - only a temporary one. If A overtakes B and the two cars are equally fast, B will have an advantage over A in the next DRS zone. It evens out.

Your thoughts?

If its just about being fastest you might as well decide points on Qualifying.

F1 is about battling too, i.e the guy in a slower car out foxing the faster guy and holding him up.

You used to get bizzare results when someone in a slower car could hold up faster cars which was exciting, but these days I feel DRS stops any chance of heoric drives.

I personally think it devalues passing. Instead of working it tactically you just get a free pass.

DRS = Not for me.

[EuroTroll]

If its just about being fastest you might as well decide points on Qualifying.

I meant the fastest over a race distance.

I personally think it devalues passing. Instead of working it tactically you just get a free pass

Why must passing be so "valuable" and rare? It used to be much more common in the early days of F1 racing, before wings, than it was in the 80s, 90s, and 00s.

[Jag_Warrior]

I like DRS. I like it much more than KERS. I think the DRS concept has been pretty well thought out and well applied. It doesn't allow slower cars to freely overtake genuinely faster cars. For the most part, I think all it does is allow a faster car to pass a (somewhat) slower car. If the car that's been passed is genuinely faster, then he'll recapture the position on the next lap, right? But since we don't see that happen all that often, then I figure it's a legit pass.

[AndyL]

You used to get bizzare results when someone in a slower car could hold up faster cars which was exciting, but these days I feel DRS stops any chance of heoric drives.

I liked Jarno, but there was nothing heroic about the Trulli Train.

[Ranger]

You used to get bizzare results when someone in a slower car could hold up faster cars which was exciting,

It was/is not usually exciting when the pursuing car can never get close enough to attempt a pass, regardless of what the car is.



Case in point: This was the closest race of last year but also one of the least exciting.

[seb_sh]

Conceptually I was initially against DRS because I felt it was somehow fake, however after seeing it in action I like it. It's not a magic pass button and the overtake even using DRS is not guaranteed, it still takes skill to get close enough for it to become active and the pass is not always trivial. Also I think it makes recovering positions more likely because many times faster cars/drivers could not pass because of the aero turbulence not allowing them to stay close to the car in front. Now faster drivers will be able to pass and get on with their race rather than spend half a race behind a slower car. So even though it's not a "natural" part of racing I don't think it is artificial or dumbed down and in the end makes the racing better for me.

[EuroTroll]

I have to say I'm a little surprised by the responses, pleasently so. I thought DRS was universally hated, but clearly not.

[rjbetty]

I think steveaki is spot on. I think there is something about holding cars up that is skillful.

I don't care if faster cars spend half the race behind a slower one. This is Formula 1 and the onus should be on the driver of the faster car to make the pass.

I wonder what Ayrton Senna would have thought of DRS.



BUT, having said that:

Overall I don't mind DRS because the way I see it, it is simply restoring slipstreaming and overtaking to how it was in earlier decades. For too long it has been artifically hard to pass due to the so-called dirty air etc. Before that, my understanding is that cars could slipstream past another car. I'm not aware of anyone complaining about that and saying it's fake and too easy.

So as I see it, all DRS does is restore things to the way they were before, kind of.

But it's not ideal at all; for me it's an uneasy compromise. Like 2 wrongs not making a right, countering an artificial difficulty in passing with an artifical passing aid doesn't seem the perfect solution, but I suppose it's ok. Besides, I'm just grateful that traction control is GONE.

I also think DRS is pretty convoluted and not relevant to road cars etc. That's why I DO like KERS instead. I think KERS should remain but maybe DRS can go. I actually quite like the DRS in the Codemasters game though.