Ross Brawn, sports director of F1, dismisses the elimination of the DRS in short term.
There is DRS for days. One of the most controversial systems of the current F1 cars will remain in force, at least in short term. This was confirmed by Ross Brawn when he was asked about the drag reduction system.
The people who is against this system must wait for the future to see how it disappears, what many consider, a help that facilitates too much overtaking in F1. Perhaps if it did not exist, it would be others who would criticize F1 for having too few overtaking, as was the case in the past, but this is already a matter of opinions and tastes.
In words of the sports director to Business Life magazine, the DRS will continue “in short term” because it claims that the current cars need this system: “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. Its a necessary Band-Aid because of the nature of the cars at the moment”, Brawn said.
Although they will not eliminate the DRS, he acknowledged that they are working to find a way to facilitate overtaking without the need for this artificial system: “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“, confirmed the F1 sports director.
From Pirelli point out that last season there were 47% overtaking attempts less than the year 2016. Almost half less. This would also be explained by the introduction of the new regulation with greater aerodynamic load in the cars.
In addition, the time per lap was also slower than the previous year, although Brawn does not see it as a negative thing, but rather: “The speed of the cars is important, these are the fastest racing cars in the world, and the fans want to feel that Formula One is the pinnacle. But tomorrow if I could trade five miles an hour from the top speed for better racing, I’d do it“, said Brawn.