The drivers’ briefing in Japan had a discussion regarding DRS usage, whether it should be automated or left it on the F1 drivers after the heavy shunt of Jack Doohan.
The discussion around DRS popped up after Alpine’s Doohan had a major crash in FP2 of F1 Japanese GP at Suzuka. It was noted that he kept his DRS flap open going at high-speed in Turn 1. That millisecond to find time and performance cost him dearly in the end, especially when is already under pressure.
While it is not new for drivers to extract that extra time by utilising every last bit, but they have to be mindful of the risks. It was reported that Doohan had practiced the move on the simulator with no consequences. But on his first attempt on the track, it handed him a big lesson.
He already missed FP1 after Alpine elected to run Ryo Hirakawa. Despite the lack of running, Doohan finished a decent 15th after starting at the back of the grid. He was seen holding his hand while getting out of the car in the parc ferme, being aided by Esteban Ocon as well.
He feels fine now after resting for couple of days. “It [Hirakawa replacing him] was something that was, to my knowledge, very early on in the year—way before testing, before the start of the year,” said Doohan. “So, there were reasons around the positioning of that FP1 and very early on I knew these things were not in my control.
“So you just suck it up and push on and take it as it comes. Regarding my body, I think I was sore a little bit on Friday, certainly Saturday a bit worse, and Sunday a little bit worse again. So I’d say there was pain from the start of the race, not necessarily towards the end. It helps with the adrenaline a little bit, for sure.
“And yeah, I think it’s natural with the shunt and just the positioning that I suffered a little bit of soreness. But a couple of days off—Monday, Tuesday and also yesterday—have been very much needed and very good for the body,” summed up Doohan. The incident raised a discussion on if the DRS needs to be automated to avoid manual button push to stop such incidents from happening.
Naturally, the F1 drivers had mixed response. The general consensus centered around next year when the DRS is mostly to be semi-automated anyways. There was also a point about automation leading to increase of DRS zones to help overtaking in the future.
Here’s what the F1 drivers said –
Carlos Sainz: “Safety is still the main priority always with these cars, especially the speeds we’re doing. You saw in any other era of F1 Jack is not walking today. So we need to keep making progress. If we are going to make the cars as fast as they are nowadays, we need to keep making progress with safety. And I felt I was quite vocal yesterday in saying, I’m surprised this hasn’t happened more often, because I’ve had moments where I’ve mis-pressed the DRS button and it stayed open, and it gives you a massive snap and a massive fright going into a corner like Turn 1 here, Shanghai Turn 1, Australia, Turn 9. We have too many of these corners where it’s down to a driver almost to close it, and down to a DRS to do a good job on recovery.
“And I’m afraid there hasn’t been enough of these crashes in order to prove that maybe we need to work on safety in this item. But I hope yesterday’s crash shows that we need to make something that automatically 100m, 50m before the braking it shuts, so you don’t get the chance for the driver to make a mistake, or the DRS to fail if it doesn’t close. And it gives you a bit of warning that if it hasn’t closed from the FIA, you still need to close it. So yeah, also going into next year with this downforce thing that they want to adjust, it’s important I think for us that we come up with something automatic.”
George Russell: “Obviously what happened to Jack was a big shunt, and very unfortunate. But I think it’s one of those things that you see happen once, and everybody will recognise, and this is probably the only corner of the whole calendar that it’s a problem. So I don’t think anything really needs [to be done]. I think as drivers, you have responsibilities. We’ve got to go flat out, down the straight and turn into the corners and clicking a button to turn the DRS off is part of the job. We don’t want it to be automated, we’ve got to leave it down to the drivers. There’s already too many gadgets and assistance.”
Charles Leclerc: “I feel like if we have a system like this, I think we can maybe use it and have more DRS. Like before Turn 1 in Silverstone, I think it’s a good example. And here before 130R are there’s a huge straight, and it’s a bit of a shame that we don’t use these kinds of straights to do it. But I also feel like it can be up to us. Also Turn 1 in Silverstone when we had it, I thought it was quite cool, because you had to be very brave into Turn 1 to keep the DRS, and there was something to gain out of it. I don’t mind either way.”
Fernando Alonso: “I don’t have a strong opinion on that. Both [opinions] are valid. I think like Silverstone, it is the same thing in Turn 15 where you enter the corner with the DRS open, so you have to choose if closing manually or just going into the corner with the thing open. But I think Suzuka is a very unique thing and that crash was a little bit unique. Next year, it will change anyways because the car is doing semi-automatically, the drag reduction. So, it should not be a topic anymore. For some cars yes, qualifying with DRS open in 130R could be done, but for some car it is more challenging. It was the same in the past when it was free around the lap and Red Bull was doing Turn 1 and Turn 2 in Silverstone with the DRS open and the others didn’t.
“It is a normal thing in Formula 1, some cars can do things, others there are some tricky devices that…like we were driving with one hand when we had the f-duct, so this is the nature of the sport to search for new limits every week, so that’s also good for Formula 1. We should be free to make decisions, we are not free enough probably many decisions as I said, with the out-lap preparations, the qualifying, the energy deployment sometimes – now it is automatic, but in the past we six seconds button on the steering wheel that we could choose strategically where we want to use those six seconds and that provides sometimes different spots for overtaking and things like that. And now everything we deploy the same energy in the same straights and there is no freedom to overtake or change the strategy, so it is enough.”
Max Verstappen: “I think with more experienced drivers we know that you have to close into Turn 1 because you are still going flatout into the corner. Yeah, maybe it is bit of an experience thing that it happened. I think it is more for next year, we go to these automated flexi or whatever you call it, I don’t know, but yeah it will close on [its own]. I think it’s a bit more for that kind of regulation, for me now it doesn’t need for this year, it doesn’t need an automated like closing time or position.”
Alexander Albon: “I am nowhere on it but I would say that next year, we should have something just with how much reliance there’s going to be on the flexi DRS things. It is one of those things that is unique in many ways, I see it as a skill but also possibly an unnecessary risk. Take Japan for example, we complain about not much overtaking, we could easily add a DRS zone, I think the reason we don’t add a DRS zone is because there are corners – same with Silverstone – but then if you are already manually closing them anyways like Turn 1 in China and Turn 1 in Suzuka, why not add more DRS zones anyway.
“If we can add an automated system, would it make FIA in Formula 1 more comfortable to add more DRS zones? I know it is not the most pure way of racing but…maybe not in Japan, maybe the idea would be not to have it before 130R but actually have it out of Turn 11, that way you are not getting this automated thing in Turn 1 if you have double DRS zones after each other. So, I think that could be a consideration, that’s my point of view.”
Here’s Jack Doohan being helped by Esteban Ocon
