George Russell, Mercedes, Albert Park, 2022

Albert Park’s new fourth DRS zone removed due to safety concerns

2022 Australian Grand Prix

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The FIA has removed the fourth DRS zone which was added to the Albert Park circuit for this weekend’s race.

The sport’s governing body was unhappy with the safety of the new zone, which was used for the first time yesterday.

Australian Grand Prix race director Niels Wittich informed teams before the start of third practice that the DRS zone added to the circuit ahead of the weekend would be removed for the rest of the race weekend.

The fourth zone, which was added along the newly-formed straight between turn eight and the high-speed chicane of turns nine-10, saw the section become the fastest point of the newly revised layout, with drivers exceeding 320kph in Friday practice.

In a notice sent to all teams, Wittich announced that the extra zone would be removed “for safety reasons”.

The first DRS detection zone will be moved from between turns six and seven to just before turn nine, while the DRS zone on the approach to turn 11 remains unchanged. All other DRS detection and activation points, with zones along the pit straight and the straight connecting turns two and three, will remain unchanged.

The move means that a total of three DRS zones will be active for the race, the same as the last race to be held at the venue in 2019.

Albert Park, Melbourne Formula 1 track map
Albert Park, Melbourne Formula 1 track map

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2022 Australian Grand Prix

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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10 comments on “Albert Park’s new fourth DRS zone removed due to safety concerns”

  1. Hm, safety reasons, eh. I guess I can see some drivers feeling the car being quite loose in the bendy “straight” stretch around the lake there. But it might have been about slowing down those running higher downforce settings – the Ferraris were porpoising badly after that change in the sector it affected. And while still fast, they were not clearly out in front anymore.

    1. @bascb The Ferrari’s were porpoising just as badly at that part of the circuit yesterday.
      https://youtu.be/w_stAEJAciU?t=46
      https://youtu.be/X9xnArvm6wE?t=39

      And as I mention below it was something drivers raised as a concern in the briefing last night.

      1. Thanks for pointing that out – I only got to watch FP1 and 2 now, and you are right, they were porpoising just about as badly yesterday already @gt-racer

        I do think it is good that they listen to the drivers feeling not happy about a DRS zone in this part of the track.

  2. Apparently in the drivers briefing last night drivers raised concerns about the closing speed with DRS which was somewhere in the region of 15-20mph in that zone.

    The area of concern was more the left handed sweep before turns 9/10.

    A number of drivers also apparently feel that they should be consulted with DRS placement & use as they are concerned that it is starting to be used more for show & to generate overtakes rather than simply act as an assist.

  3. lol

    it’s all i have to say

  4. I told you so, but an activation zone should’ve never got placed on that section in the first place.

  5. Farcical again from F1.

  6. So, who’s up for the Mark Webber Memorial Award for exceptional feats in nerfing DRS through the political arena (because you can’t hack it)?

  7. Coventry Climax
    9th April 2022, 11:34

    It’s getting harder and harder to take the FIA and, as a consequence, F1, serious anymore.

    There’s two thoughts here:
    In a way, it’s good that the FIA takes action when safety is at stake, but apparently, they (again) failed to get their predictions / simulations right.
    Is this in an attempt to keep the teams at bay that do not suffer from porpoising too much? Apparently, it’s still possible for the teams to lobby and have the rules changed during the weekend.

    Both are equally bad and equally sad.

  8. that picture is gorgeous

Comments are closed.