The Italian Grand Prix saw only 24 passes over its 51 laps but several of those were the product of prolonged battles for position between drivers.
As every car runs in low-downforce trim on Monza’s long straights the benefit of F1’s Drag Reduction System was lessened. But if some felt that contributed to better-quality racing and fewer straightforward passes achieved with DRS, the front running drivers appeared not to agree.Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jnr held off Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for the lead over the first 14 laps. Verstappen eventually got ahead by closing on his rival in a DRS zone, then passing on the approach to the Variante della Roggia, overtaking his rival on a section of the track where drivers cannot open their rear wings.
Sainz immediately fell more than a second behind and his focus switched to keeping team mate Charles Leclerc at bay. After his pit stop he was in the same situation, then later it was Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who was filling his mirrors. Once Perez got past early in the DRS zone on the pit straight, Sainz’s challenge became Leclerc again.
While he may have been at the centre of all of the race’s most important on-track battles, at no point during those did Sainz have the benefit of DRS to help him maintain his position. And the drivers behind, who did have DRS, each spent more than 10 laps within a second of Sainz unable to immediately pass.
Did the less powerful DRS at Monza contribute to better racing and more authentic racing? The drivers at the heart of the battle for the lead weren’t convinced.
Race winner Verstappen finished 11 seconds ahead of Sainz after passing the Ferrari driver. His only other on-track pass was on Lewis Hamilton, after Verstappen pitted and had the benefit of much newer tyres than the Mercedes driver.
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“I think in general, it’s still hard to pass around here,” said Verstappen. “I think [the battling] up at the front it was also because we were [starting] behind them, so we were faster and we had to pass.”
Starting behind slower cars “naturally of course creates more overtaking, or at least a chance of a possible fight”, said Verstappen, who doesn’t think the quality of racing seen at Monza was “track-specific.”
F1 overhauled its technical regulations last year in a big to encourage more passing. However when the FIA began shortening DRS zones at some tracks earlier this year, drivers complained it made overtaking too difficult. After the last race, the podium trio said F1 needs more powerful DRS rather than the opposite.
“I think in most tracks we still struggle to follow or pass,” said Verstappen. “I mean, the beginning of the year, a lot of people were complaining about passing. Of course, we had the luxury of being a quick car, we could still pass. Like in Miami, I think everyone was complaining in Miami about the passing.
“The cars are getting more and more efficient, and they have more downforce. So basically it’s harder to follow and then they’re more efficient on the straight.”
His team-mate Perez said he “really agreed” that “less DRS is not the way forwards.”
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“I remember we were discussing to actually increase the effect because the cars are getting harder to follow,” said Perez at Monza. “I think here, the DRS effect is really, really small. So I don’t think in other places we can race with less DRS. If anything, we need the DRS more in some places to be able to have better racing.”
Sainz believes the fact Verstappen spent several laps trying to pass him at Monza was a matter of circumstances.
“It’s a bit of a coincidence where we had a lot of top speed with no DRS, and Red Bull had just enough top speed with DRS and slipstream and battery to get to us under braking,” he said. “That generated a good, fun battle.
“But in 99% of the tracks I think we’re going to need DRS and we’re going to need a powerful DRS because these cars from the beginning of the year, it’s starting to become a bit like 2021 or 2020 where it is difficult to follow.
“Obviously Monza is a special case because you don’t only have DRS, you also have very long straights of slipstreaming, which helps a bit more the car behind. I think in the rest of the tracks we’re going to need DRS.”
The championship continues at Singapore this weekend which has historically been one of the more difficult tracks to overtake on. “In Singapore, we need more DRS than the straight allows!” joked Verstappen.
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PeterG
13th September 2023, 12:59
Sad reality is that modern drivers are so used to been able to pull off slam dunk push of a button highway passes with DRS that most of them have forgotten how to race without it.
They no longer have the same mindset drivers used to have in terms of trying different things in different places. They just sit back and wait for the FIA designated easy passing zone where they just need to push a button to get the easier pass.
Slam dunk DRS passes aren’t good racing, There not exciting to watch or memorable moments. It’s quantity over quality thats giving a generation of fans very little genuinely exciting and memorable bits of racing or overtaking to look back on that fondly.
I mean will any DRS pass be something anyone looks back on with any fondness?
uzsjgb (@uzsjgb)
13th September 2023, 13:10
It is not the mindset of the drivers, it is the cars. If you cannot closely follow another car through a corner, then you cannot try different things in different places.
In the past decades the majority of overtakes were slipstreams on the straights. That has not changed through DRS:
AlanD
13th September 2023, 13:39
DRS isn’t quite like slipstreaming. Slipstreaming allowed cars to get side by side and see who would outbrake the other, or outbrake themselves, in the race to the corner. DRS allows a car to pass their opponent early o n the straight and then sail off into the distance, still enjoying the benefit of DRS. If DRS cancelled once the cars were side-by-side, it would be more like slipstreaming and more entertaining.
Markp
14th September 2023, 8:54
This is exactly how drs should work. It should cancel as soon as cars are side by side. Like anyone drivers want the easiest route to their best position, deep down they dont want to be held up and want the pisition as soon as possible. The other issue is the slightest touch between cars results in a penalty. The Villeneuve v Arnoux battle of years ago would today have incurred at least 5 penalties per driver but it was amazing to watch.
Nick T.
13th September 2023, 20:59
It’s so odd that most of the drivers have lost the ability to overtake without DRS because in the first season DRS was introduced (and it was a lot less powerful then) drivers were making more overtakes than ever, but in all of types of corners and places. Not just the straight. And Brundle remarked repeatedly during the season (2012 I believe was the first season with DRS) how it seemed to have expanded the drivers minds. It was really impressive. Now they’re going backward.
Of course, the cars weren’t fat pigs two SUVS wide either and there were 6 WDCs (7 if you include Nico) on the grid. So, that helped…
MichaelN
14th September 2023, 9:41
Yes, the quality of the drivers was higher back then and the cars were smaller. And importantly they also had Pirelli’s super-degrading tyres, which by then were less well known to teams, so it resulted in a lot more performance differences throughout the race. Crucially, that led to longer braking distances and slower acceleration for the guys with worn tyres, creating many more overtaking opportunities in unusual places.
José Lopes da Silva
13th September 2023, 21:59
Modern drivers are the best prepared of all history of F1. In every way.
AlanD
13th September 2023, 13:04
I can’t be the only one who shuddered when he read the headline of drivers complaining that passing is too difficult and they need more DRS. It was even worse when I read the article and the main gripe of the article seems to be that the Red Bulls spent more than 10 laps each behind the Ferrari of Sainz, unable to breeze past him on the long Monza straight, as if they should be entitled to do that. It sounds like some people would be happier with empty track time trials.
uzsjgb (@uzsjgb)
13th September 2023, 13:18
I find it silly that a much faster car is trapped behind a slower car, simply because modern cars cannot follow closely in corners. This is nothing a driver can influence nor a team in the construction of their car. It is not good racing when the sport is limited by this. DRS is a good thing, because it counteracts this limitation and makes the sport fairer.
AlanD
13th September 2023, 13:35
Uzsjgn, yes, I agree it is frustrating cars cannot follow more closely, and that also means it cuts out an element of driver skill, of racing closely in twisty sections. However, does that justify DRS?
It seems to me that the better answer is to look at rule changes to stop cars chopping off opponents trying to pass in corners, or look at how to change track layouts to give multiple side-by-side lines through corners. F1 tracks have to follow a certain style, they have to have a long straight feeding into a tight hairpin like corner, and they have to have a long twisty section where no-one can ever pass. They never seem to go back and look at track design to see if there is a way to make racing in corners possible.
They could also change car regs to make them less aero-dependent and less turbulent. I read some years back about research into a split wing, essentially two smaller wings positioned over the rear wheels instead of the large rear wing, which produced a fair amount of downforce with much less turbulence and would allow cars to follow much more closely. The main disadvantage was that the rear wing is a huge advertising billboard and no racing series would consider it for fear of losing sponsors.
uzsjgb (@uzsjgb)
13th September 2023, 14:22
Sure, a lot could be done, but it won’t.
Tracks cannot all be rebuilt, that is much too expensive. Most tracks right now are built or remodeled by the most experienced people available. Tracks are built with overtaking in mind. So either it is not possible to construct better tracks or we have to wait for more competent track builders.
F1 is trying to make cars less aero-dependent, but progress is slow. You would need hundreds of millions of money, hundreds of good engineers and a decade of time to maybe come to an acceptable result. That will never happen. DRS or some other overtaking aid is here to stay. I personally think that with the new active aero coming we will see a reverse DRS on the car in front.
There is one easy and quick solution to the problem: use Formula 4 cars in Formula 1. If I am informed correctly Formula 4 is the fastest open wheel formula which does not use an overtaking aid. So, instead of going to all that effort to make Formula One cars more like Formula 4 cars, why not just use the solution we already have?
joe
13th September 2023, 15:49
Well said, I completely agree. While DRS is not perfect, it serves a purpose. The Verstappen/Sainz battle from Monza was a perfect example, 2 closely matched cars battling hard with no ‘easy’ DRS pass.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
13th September 2023, 13:10
Of course drivers want more powerful DRS. If you gave me a button that would make my job easier just by pressing it, you can be sure I’d wear that thing out in a day or two.
The drivers are the wrong people to ask.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
13th September 2023, 14:33
I fully agree. It is like asking football players about the size of the goal. The fieldplayers want a bigger goal, the goalkeeper wants a smaller goal.
DRS was always going to have a smaller effect at Monza because the rear wing is minimal for that circuit.
drmouse (@drmouse)
13th September 2023, 14:46
Completely agreed. Drivers’ opinions need to be considered when making the rules, but not just accepted on face value.
DRS makes their lives much easier, and the stronger the effect, the easier it makes it for them. Even if it’s just that they don’t need to put the effort into defending, because the car behind is going to pass them anyway.
For me, it was always a sticking plaster at best. It’s the epitome of artificial constructs, giving drivers an advantage in one area to make up for a disadvantage in another. But drivers have got used to it this last decade, and it’s become _very_ rare to see an overtake which isn’t DRS-assisted. Whether this is because drivers have lost/are losing the skillset, or because it’s just easier to wait for the DRS zone, is debatable.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
13th September 2023, 18:34
I like to see some evidence. I am not saying you are wrong, I just can’t find any proof. I am of the opinion that more than half of all overtakes are done WITHOUT use of DRS, because most overtakes happen after (re)starts and on a wet track when DRS is deactivated. I don’t believe that drivers forgot how to overtake without the use of DRS, it just makes little sense to take much risks when you can wait for an easier (drs assisted) opportunity. Don’t blame the drivers for being opportunistic.
drmouse (@drmouse)
14th September 2023, 9:49
Ok, I meant in normal conditions. Starts/restarts/wet weather excluded. Basically, where DRS is available, we very rarely see non-DRS passes. It’s probably just that that’s the easiest/safest way, so why take the risk of outbraking or trying to pass in the corners/non-DRS zones?
Todfod (@todfod)
14th September 2023, 8:42
Agree 100%. The drivers opinion regarding DRS should not be considered at all.
Their mentality is that a faster car-driver combo should by able to get by a slower combination of car-driver because they’re faster. Which is the direct opposite of what fans want to see… which is a less competitive car-driver combo keeping someone who’s faster behind, and in the process get a proper battle, instead of ‘press this button to win’.
At Monza, I actually thought the effect of DRS was perfect. It was not too powerful to just blow by drivers, but not weak enough to still have a huge gap going in to a braking zone. If anything, the FIA/FOM should look in to the balance of DRS at Monza as an benchmark for other circuits.
Dex
13th September 2023, 14:01
If I wanted to watch something “easier”, I wouldn’t be watchng F1. Shame on you all, really…
RH
13th September 2023, 14:16
DRS is definitely needed. Passing cars is not trivial because of the aerodynamics involved. And the more I look back at the good old days the more I realize how battles went. As long as you weren’t sufficiently slow, you were impossible to pass.
Given the weakened slipstream effect of the ground effect cars, DRS is even more important to make passes. There are plenty of good overtakes where DRS helps get level into the braking zone, following by out braking the car being overtaken. Seems like many consider even those as easy passes.
A car shouldn’t be able to pass only because the car in front makes a mistake. They shouldn’t be able to pass halfway down the straight either. I think the current regulations are fine as is, and DRS worked well this year whenever the zones were appropriately set.
If people think RB is able to pass easily, they need to recognize that the RB car has the most downforce and can follow much more closely through the corners without losing downforce. Then they are already well alongside before the next straight and boom, passes the much slower car.
drmouse (@drmouse)
13th September 2023, 15:57
I agree that something is needed still, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that DRS and its current implementation are the correct solution.
I think it would be more acceptable if it were made to “emulate” slipstreaming, so that the wing closed when, e.g, your nose was level with their rear wing (approx where you’d have to pull out of the slipstream). There are several other tweaks to the rules which could be trialed, even going so far as reversing it (making it so you could increase your wing angle in the corners when you were behind another car), but the FIA, teams and drivers are all focussed on the current implementation to the exclusion of all others.
The problem is that we rarely seem to get DRS just bringing a car approximately level, so that they still need to outbrake their rival. We either see highway passes which are completed half way down the straight, or DRS trains where nobody is able to pass even with DRS. Neither type is very exciting, they are no more enjoyable to watch than the pre-DRS processions to me.
The DRS itself is not a bad thing IMHO, but I don’t think the current implementation is anywhere near optimal. It’s always either way too powerful or not powerful enough. Yet the only thing which ever changes are the number and length of the zones, which is near-impossible to get the balance right with (especially when the effectiveness of the DRS changes substantially between cars).
Sham (@sham)
13th September 2023, 15:05
This one article proves to me that the Formula 1 that I loved for so long is gone forever. The skills of stalking and setting up an overtake with patience over sometimes many laps, the skills of defence from a much faster car… even one that’s faster in a straight line.
Gone forever.
DRS will never, despite all the false promises to review it’s removal when the new cars were being developed, be gone – drive by passes and little resistance being the new way.
If the current cars can’t slipstream enough to pass at Monza, they can’t do it anywhere and the regulations are a failure.
Alesici
13th September 2023, 23:38
I often think that Indycar is currently much like the early 90s F1 that I loved, so I suggest you try watching it instead of waiting for the F1 you loved to return.
In truth, Indycar today is more like the 90s Indycar that I loved. When Colton Herta was asked last week how his dad’s old Indycar felt compared to Colton’s modern one, he said they were remarkably similar. A lack of ‘progress’ can sometimes be a wonderful thing…
One change Indycar has made in that time is their push to pass power boost, which is a great example which shows what F1 should use instead of DRS.
SadF1fan
13th September 2023, 15:57
The F1 you loved so much hasn’t existed for over 20, and perhaps even 30 years.
The more downforce there is, the more dirty air, the more difficult, if not, impossible it is to follow the car in front.
Just watch a round of worldchampionship karting and you will see how difficult following and overtaking is without downforce.
N
13th September 2023, 16:24
“Despite close battles at Monza, F1 drivers want more powerful DRS”
lmao.
…by ‘drivers’, you mean both Redbulls.
I can’t for the life of me wonder why the 2 cars that gain the most from DRS, want more of it.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
13th September 2023, 18:30
Your claim makes little sense. Of all drivers, Verstappen is the one who used DRS the least this year, for the simple explanation that he almost always is the leading car.
N
13th September 2023, 21:17
Hardly a bold claim, though, the article title says ‘drivers’ implying its all, if not most of the grid, when actually, it only quotes the 2 Redbull drivers, and we know Redbull extracts the most performance out of its use.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
13th September 2023, 21:53
The article says that the drivers on the podium responded and two of them were from RB. Why would Verstappen want a more powerful DRS more than his fellow competitors when he is leading the race nine times out of ten? A more powerful DRS will use against him.
AJ
13th September 2023, 16:54
more powerful yes, but also automatically closes when the passing car is halfway alongside the other car.
sam
13th September 2023, 17:31
If you still need drs your billion dollar rule change is a failure.
Tim (@tsgoodchild)
13th September 2023, 18:28
Not against DRS, but I’d rather see limited use of it say 5x in a race and could be utilised at any point – possibly to defend a position or to extend a gap, not just an overtake. So it becomes strategic. I’d still also support the banning of blue flags.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
13th September 2023, 20:36
Banning of blue flags means for example the alpha tauri drivers are gonna make it hard for any non red bull drivers to pass and so on, which could make a difference when cars aren’t dominant just by having customer teams or b teams.
Roberto Fratelli (@rfratelli)
13th September 2023, 22:54
I just don´t get it. How can a overtake which is completed by the middle of the straight with the leading car not able at all to defend be exciting?
I prefer to watch two cars battling during a brake zone and actually choosing lines to get the overtake done, not just pressing a button and going by.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
14th September 2023, 1:24
Given that both championships are all but over, and will be soon, wouldn’t this season be perfect for trialing a couple of races WITHOUT DRS?
As far as I’m concerned, I’ve seen far better racing, as against a bunch of overtakes, when DRS is either not enabled or called ineffective. Drivers have actually had to work to execute a pass. Whats wrong with someone having to chase for several laps looking for an opening?
The way things are going, and to a certain degree already happens, drivers will just be instructed to pull over and let any car that comes up behind them past just so the powers that be can say “look how many overtakes we had”.
MichaelN
14th September 2023, 9:46
That’s not what the engineers ‘simulated’ so it’s not ‘optimal’.
What F1 drivers seem to want is time trials. They don’t want to navigate the challenges inherent in qualifying. They don’t want to battle for position. They don’t want to defend. They don’t want to make a proper overtake. They are seemingly really inconvenienced by being in a race.
Sam
14th September 2023, 7:11
Going to ten uses of DRS per race is something I could support. Otherwise, I would rather watch two cars closely follow one another laps after lap, with one driver trying to force the other into a mistake or having to use strategy.
Schumacher Vs Alonso Imola anyone?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
14th September 2023, 19:22
You see now what these drivers want? Overtakes on a silver platter, afraid to race in heavy rain, just nothing to do with the formula 1 of the 80s, 90s, 2000s for example.