Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Hockenheimring, 2018

DRS zone removed at Hockenheimring

2019 German Grand Prix

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One of the Hockenheimring’s three DRS activation zones has been removed for this weekend’s German Grand Prix.

The DRS zone on the start/finish straight, which was added for the first time last year, has been removed. It previously worked in conjunction with the zone on the following straight, which shared the same detection point before the final corner.

As a result the zone running between turns one and two will be triggered by a detection point 103 metres before turn one. A similar detection point was used the last time Hockenheim had two DRS zones, in 2016, though it was 22 metres further away from the corner.

The zone before turn two has also been slightly shortened. Drivers can activate DRS 60 metres after turn one, five metres later than last year. The other DRS zone’s detection and activation points are unchanged.

This is the second race weekend in a row where the number of DRS zones has been reduced. Silverstone also dropped its zone on the start/finish line, leaving just two zones elsewhere on the track.

The only other change to the track this weekend is the addition of a new negative kerb on the entry to turn 13.

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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...

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23 comments on “DRS zone removed at Hockenheimring”

  1. I am sure someone will explain to me what a “negative” kerb is ?

    1. I’m just guessing here (so correct me if I’m wrong) but I think it’s a curb that slopes down instead of up. So it has negative camber.

    2. It’s a different word for an antikerb, i.e. a kerb composed of particles whose physical charges and quantum numbers have the same abolute values as those in a regular kerb, but with opposing signs. For all practical purposes, it functions just like a regular kerb, but if a kerb and an negative kerb collide, they annihilate each other, converting the resulting mass deficit into a gigantic burst of gamma rays, which should be powerful enough to obliterate the Hockenheimring and its surroundings, as well as killing off all living beings in a radius of up to hundreds of kilometers, depending on the size of the kerb and negative kerb which annihilate.
      It is therefore imperative that negative kerbs be treated with utmost precaution and remain firmly attached to the ground at all times.

      For the sake of completeness, there’s another meaning of the same word, in which case it refers to a negatively cambered kerb. But that’d be silly.

      1. Hahahaha, awesome!

      2. I think the negative kerb here simply means that the kerb will complain loudly everytime a car goes over it. In addition to the message being played through the loudspeakers in that corner the message is also transmitted directly into the helmet of the offending driver with just little too loud volume and it can not be turned off. I think they are using computer generated sound file made of vettel’s blue flag messages.

  2. Much better for racing.

  3. Remove the other two and it will be perfect :-)

    Oh, and the halo.

    1. @vjanik The halo will save lives. Maybe already has. Why on earth would you want to remove it?

      1. 4 wheels are safer than 2. why not ban motogp and motorcycles? will save lives.

        1. Arguably it already saved leclerc from alonso in spa 2018 “come on, what did he do?”, you definitely want leclerc alive if you want good racing!

    2. and revert to leather driving caps … like real men. And t-shirts … no “seat’ belts, either. So the driver can be “thrown free”. Side pod fuel tanks … not “cells.” Yeesch ..

  4. Yep – remove them all or even better – shorten them.
    I prefer more in numbers but less in length DRS zones.

    The crucial part of the overtake manoeuvre should be done with out-breaking your opponent.

  5. maybe it could be sold off to another circuit?….

  6. Ok, I have to ask. By adding a DRS zone last year, who did it help? Also by deleting the DRS zone this year, who does it help?

  7. Jose Lopes da Silva
    25th July 2019, 9:46

    Keep the halo.

  8. georgeboole (@)
    25th July 2019, 11:16

    Which is turn 13? The one Vettel went off?

    1. I believe that it is the one after. Vettel went off in turn 12 the “Sachs Kurve”.

      1. georgeboole (@)
        25th July 2019, 18:19

        Ah that was close!

  9. One DRS zone less – that’s peanuts!
    They’re planning to have zero DRS zones in Hockenheim in 2020 …

    1. Which will, of course, produce the dullest imaginable race!

  10. Why, though? In Silverstone, it was the right decision to remove the activation zone of the S/F straight due to the high-speed nature of Abbey, but it wasn’t risky with Hockenheimring’s equivalent T1. Approaching that corner with DRS-activated I mean. Definitely not on low-fuel in qualifying, but not even in race conditions with high-fuel, and different tyre-deg levels when approaching that corner close behind another car. Nothing risky happened at T1 twelve months ago due to DRS, so, therefore, I don’t really understand this move, and am a bit more annoyed by the lack of explanation/reasoning behind it.

    1. Because it does nothing. Main straight is too short to make a pass into t1. Dirty air will make it difficult to stay close enough through T1 to make a pass into T2. Now the DRS Zone between T1 and T2 is there to get you closer to make a pass on the next straight.

      That’s just what I think.

  11. nase, that was an impeccable application of quantum theory in the real world! simply astronomical on my funny barometer.

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