Single DRS zone again at the Nurburgring

2011 German Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Nurburgring, 2009

Drivers will only be able to use DRS once per lap during the German Grand Prix.

But they will be able to deploy it heading towards one of the prime overtaking spots on the track – the Veedol chicane.

The FIA has confirmed the DRS detection zone will be on the approach to the Kumho-Kurve (turn ten). Drivers will then be able to activate their rear wings shortly after the exit of the Bit-Kurve (turn 11).

They will then be able to keep them open all the way up to the braking zone for the chicane. Here’s a diagram showing the positioning of the zone:

DRS zone for the 2011 German Grand Prix

As usual, drivers will have free use of the wing in practice and qualifying.

2011 German Grand Prix

    Browse all 2011 German Grand Prix articles

    Image © Red Bull/Getty images

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    28 comments on “Single DRS zone again at the Nurburgring”

    1. A logical place really, we’ve seen over the years drivers trying to overtake into the Veedol Chicane but not quite being able to.

      1. Yep, as if a driver doesn’t pass there, they can try at turn 1. Whereas, if the DRS was at turn 1, the drivers would stop trying to overtake at the chicane and wait for turn 1. Therefore, the DRS in that position should create good racing there, instead of a procession at the chicane.

    2. I just hope we will not see a Turkey like use of DRS here.

      1. dyslexicbunny
        21st July 2011, 16:14

        That was my thought but I couldn’t remember which race it was!

      2. It could be – two straights with a high-speed turn in between, followed by a chicane, and preceded by a chicane.

      3. I too fear a repeat with this zone, if it were up to me I’d have gone for the main straight. Turn 1 has a real camber/elevation change too which could have demanded some skilful overtaking, even with DRS.

        1. Wouldn’t having a relatively open corner before the straight hampered the effectiveness there?

          1. Well that last corner favours high downforce, and also drivers with good pace/tyre advantage will gain on it. So on the straight they would capitalise if they had good traction coming out of that corner, and it’s not a particularly huge straight so it wouldn’t be too much either. But I guess we’ll never know, unless they put it there 2013 and you can prove me wrong :D

            1. But the corners that favor high downforce are always going to hamper the chasing car… I think the main straight would have been like it was in Australia, fairly ineffective.

      4. ScottishNotBritish
        21st July 2011, 17:30

        Or Canada where most of the overtakes were done well before the corner. DRS has denied us so many good racing moments this year.

        1. But it’s also provided many, how many times has helped one car to stay close to another?

          Canada and Turkey are obvious examples of the FIA getting it wrong. However, they have got it right as well at other venues.

      5. Yes the DRS zone is rather long here. having one is the right decision anyway. should be only 1 at every track.

      6. I hope not. That would be terrible!

    3. Layout itself is hard to overtake but some interesting corners are quite challenging and would make some scene(or rather call it mistake). the biggest factor is surely the weather. Again we would see similar situation to Montreal and Silverstone…

    4. Ive got a good feeling about this weekend.

      1. Good to whom? :D

    5. The detection point means whoever’s behind might be able to do some real late breaking into Turn 10, thus compromising the overall execution of the corner, but most importantly, getting within the 1 sec margin.

      Unless the driver in front late breaks as well. it’s interesting.

      1. Interesting, is the runoff area sufficient to make intentional running off an option?

    6. Ooh I like the DRS positioning. Do we think it will cause any problems through the kink with decreased rear downforce? But I suppose they all managed fine in Turkey. Still, I’m interested.

      1. Unless a backmarker intervenes I can’t see it being a problem.

    7. Why did they remove 2 DRS zones? and what they should do is leave DRS detection on both zones instead of a single zone.

      1. because the 2 drs zones experiment was a failure.

    8. With Schumacher racing on the “Schumacher Esses” this weekend, is it the first time a driver’s raced on an F1 circuit where a corner’s named after him?

      As far as I’m aware the term “Senna S” was only really used after he died.

      1. I’m pretty sure Niki Lauda drove on the corner called ‘Niki Lauda’ at the original Ostreichring (Now the Red Bull Ring)

    9. i really wish they would just drop drs, there has never been anything introduced into f1 which i’ve hated more.

      drs has robbed us of good racing this year & not created any.

      im dissapointed to see that drs has even been adopted by the world series by renault next season. since next year they will run a new car, why not just design a car which allows real racing? superleague formula seem to have a car which encourages good racing without the need for silly drs gimmicks so clearly its possible.

      1. Exactly, a car. Not cars. Superleague, Indy, GP2/3/asia, all use the same cars. F1 gets teams to build their own cars, hence the performance differences

        1. i was talking about the world series by renault decision to use drs next year & not f1 when i compared to superleague formuls.

          my point been that world series by renault are bringing in a new car for 2012 so rather than add drs they should produce a car which can race and does not need drs.

    10. Great to be back at the ring!! Can’t wait!

    Comments are closed.