The FIA has made a significant extension to a DRS zone for the second race in a row as overtaking remains difficult for Formula 1 drivers.
The current generation of technical regulations was introduced two years ago with the aim of making it easier for drivers to follow each other closely and pass. The latest change indicates those running F1 still believe DRS is necessary to make passing possible.The DRS zone on the longest straight at the Baku City Circuit, scene of this weekend’s race, has been extended by 100 metres. Drivers can now activate DRS 347m after the final corner, turn 20, compared to 447m last year.
A minor change has been made to the second DRS zone which begins at the exit of turn two. This has been shortened by just two metres.
Last year the FIA briefly experimented with cutting the length of DRS zones at some circuits. However, this prompted complaints from drivers that it made overtaking too difficult. The DRS zone at Baku has been restored to its length prior to that change.
Two other DRS zones were shortened this year, compared to the previous season, at the Circuit de Catalunya and Spa-Francorchamps. The latter change also led to complaints from drivers that it reduced their chances of passing.
No major changes have been made to the Baku circuit for this year’s race but several barriers have been repositioned or replaced with new examples. Additional asphalt has been added in the pit exit, between turns two and three and between turns seven and eight – the latter being one of the narrowest parts of any track on the F1 calendar.
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Jere (@jerejj)
12th September 2024, 7:37
I definitely couldn’t anticipate a return to the previous & original starting point for the Baku Boulevard activation zone, but 50 meters at best, which would be enough for balancing out purposes.
I guess FIA thought bringing the starting point forward by all 100 meters was better after how strong the DRS train effect was last year in both sprint & race.
If only they’d done the same in Miami, considering the same factors of strong DRS train effect & following getting harder season-by-season within stable technical regs or at least somewhat extended for this year’s edition, but at least they seem to have learned, & this extension also gives me more hope that the Strip activation zone starting point will remain unchanged from how last year’s Las Vegas GP weekend ended.
Btw, the T2-T3 activation zone starting point still sits at 54 meters after T2, so the 2m reference proved incorrect.
Additionally, Jeddah & Imola also received shortening for this year (for the sake of it, of course), & FIA indeed had already once decided to stop doing these, but still started doing so again for this year, but they might’ve finally realized.
notagrumpyfan
12th September 2024, 10:34
That’s exactly why there should be NO DRS. F1 should not have this WEC stuff of balancing out differences. It’s up to the teams to develop the best race car and ‘balance out’ the benefits of grip when following and sleekness when on a straight.
The only thing FIA could do is define design rules where (if they want) the disadvantage of following through the curvy stuff is never bigger than the benefit of slipstreaming, for all and at all times.
Jere (@jerejj)
12th September 2024, 10:48
By balancing out, I meant that if the starting point located 50 meters earlier than last year & thus, the same amount later than the original, the ratio between possibly easy-looking passes & minimizing the DRS train effect would roughly match rather than being considerably one-sided.
notagrumpyfan
12th September 2024, 15:14
That’s even worse; you make it all about the optics of overtakes and ‘trains’ rather than fair racing!
And it won’t work the way you envision it, as the longer DRS will be for all drivers; thus no advantage for those stuck further down in the ‘train’.
Why do fans want to give drivers who either lack the skills and/or car an artificial help to make them appear better than they really are?
It might seem fairer than WEC’s BoP, but it’s still giving an artificial help to only one of the cars to make the racing (appear) more exciting. Just rather than do it for the whole race, it is determined lap by lap. The only real difference with BoP is that we can see it and are (still) allowed to discuss it.
MichaelN
12th September 2024, 8:46
Before the start of the 2022 season, Ross Brawn promised they’d review the cars and make adjustments where needed. Instead, they’re going right back to “more DRS”.
What a disappointment.
Liberty should not have a role in technical regulations again.
Jere (@jerejj)
12th September 2024, 10:49
They don’t & this is solely about FIA finally realizing that as following gets harder season-by-season until next season in any case, shortening activation zones doesn’t benefit anyone.
Doh
12th September 2024, 13:50
I guess the issue is that they let the cars get harder to follow after brawn promised they would make adjustments to counteract that. The early 2022 cars were great for racing, but feels like they didn’t even last an entire season like that
Doh
12th September 2024, 13:58
To add to that, surely the easiest way to counteract it would to be reduced weight, even if it has to be done gradually rather that a drastic regulation change. The end result being 150kg lighter
With less weight I would think there would be less aero dependency to achieve the same lap times, since there is simply much less weight.
The reduction in necessary down force would mean they could, in theory depend on “dirty down force” relatively less than now.
Going back to 2008 F1 car dimensions would automatically reduce a bunch of weight. But I guess those whole comment and thought process is too simple for the FIA and the teams…
Jere (@jerejj)
12th September 2024, 14:26
Weight will indeed get reduced, primarily via car dimensions for 2026, but also other aspects, which will additionally cause downforce reduction.
However, the part about following subsequently getting harder ever since the early 2022 phase is unfortunate, but simply a consequence of general evolution that causes teams to develop more towards the outwash effect.
Yes, FIA could counteract, but that would essentially force them to tweak technical regulations every single season, which would be excessive, not to mention, not cost-effective at all.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
12th September 2024, 14:26
Would also reduce the effectiveness of the slipstream which would make overtaking harder.
One of the complaints drivers had when the cars were reduced from 2m to 1.8m wide in 1998 was that the narrower cars were producing less drag which was reducing the tow & making it harder to overtake.
The cars been taken back to 2m in 2017 reversed that & the slipstream was actually made quite a bit more powerful, Just go back & watch the opening laps where DRS isn’t active, Especially at places like Baku that have longer straights & you will see the slipstream became significantly more effective with the wider cars. That is one of the reason you started to see drivers waiting later to go on safety car restarts on tracks like Baku, Interlagos & Mugello.
At Baku in particular its not been uncommon to see cars 2-3 wide down to T1 without DRS on starts/restarts purely because of the more powerful slipstream of the wider cars.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
12th September 2024, 14:26
For example the Baku 2017 restart. No DRS, Purely slipstream.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDZPdyC1pC8
Doh
12th September 2024, 17:34
Although this may be true I believe it balances out with other benefits of less weight and smaller dimensions
1. having more space during wheels to wheels battles
2. Having more space to find different lines while behind other cars
3. More agile darty cars allowing for more go kart style moves and different ways of entering corners.
Having said that it didn’t seem so bad the slipstreaming from 2007 – 2010 (before drs). And even post drs It was pretty healthy.
It felt more like the 2017 onwards cars just gave the slipstream more power but not that it was insufficient before.
Plus there will still be drs going forward (or some form of an overtaking aid) and the current cars even with their width have themselves had the issue of not giving enough of a slipstream, especially early in the regs. Not sure if that’s changed much now.
I think a key thing of smaller shorter cars is the ability to take different lines more easily and thus creating pressure even if it doesn’t finish in an overtake it at least provides opportunities and battles. Eg Fernando behind schumi in turkey and imola 2005 and 2006;
The underlining is that Fom and F1 have no competition, they can be relatively lazy and not much, yet get on just fine. The way the sport is there’s no real incentive for them to try hard or be proactive and creative with these types of things.
A group of people with the right and clear mindset, good financial backing and correct people invlolved need to come forward. Nothing like that sort of undertaking would be easy, but the formula to create a new series with equal laptime to F1 (or faster), is fairly simple and indeed foundational to F1.
The cars of 20 years ago delivered laptimes similar to today, with today’s technology that’s easily possible at a bare minimum. There’s also a real world test of “clean downforce” in the form of the current F1 regs to take from and potentially use for a mew series.
A great point was made the other day in the comments here that there are hundreds of European open wheel “feeder series” with nowhere to actually feed into.
There’s definitely space for a new series with multiple classes. In fact I’d say this hypothetical series would do best to have it’s 2nd best series on par with F1 laptimes.
And spec cars without doubt, for a true drivers championship. Where saying competition and sport would be with merit.
I’ll keep dreaming until it’s time to wake up to this reality where F1 is 2nd best. I dont think F1 has been “best” for a good handful of years now.
Doh
12th September 2024, 13:59
At least 150kg lighter*
MichaelN
12th September 2024, 14:49
They very much do. Brawn was hired by Liberty, and he formed a team in which Patrick Symonds and Jason Sommerville played big roles. From about 2017, 2018, they constantly touted their superior process, including wind tunnel tests and extensive CFD work. Something they criticised tyre FIA for not using (enough).
Nikolas Tombazis, on behalf of the FIA, was it course involved at certain moments, but this 2022 spec is very much Liberty’s car.
Sham (@sham)
12th September 2024, 9:30
F1 cars getting less raceable with every evolution. It’s time to go back to basics. Add lightness and use tyres that are able to take the punishment. And most of all, remove DRS.
Jere (@jerejj)
12th September 2024, 10:49
DRS will indeed get removed after next season.
notagrumpyfan
12th September 2024, 15:19
And replaced with an electronic equivalent (MOM); less visible but still the same artificial help for the ‘weak’.
MOM would only be less ‘unfair’ if each driver gets the same amount of MOMs each race.
Jere (@jerejj)
12th September 2024, 17:46
notagrumpyfan Maybe, but MoM is still more akin to KERS & its usage won’t be limited to designated zones (from my understanding) like with DRS, even if only the driver behind will have it or more of it to use over a single green race lap.
MichaelN
12th September 2024, 17:20
Because it’s become the baseline wing configuration on straights (to get cars to high speeds faster where the MGU output is capped). Instead, they’ll transform the gimmick into an (essentially) uncapped MGU. And then limit MGU deployment on tracks where the cars would otherwise drain them too quick. It’s all more of the same; no development, no technical innovation, and helping cars fly past cars ahead of them because, for whatever reason, F1 thinks that the faster car must always be ahead. That’s so dull! There has never been an epic duel where a slower car tries to pass the faster car.
SteveP
13th September 2024, 8:47
Active aero, for the whole lap. Push to pass.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
12th September 2024, 14:17
DRS has tended to make passing too easy on this track so this isn’t a good change.
So it seems that Liberty and/or the FIA are just interested in creating a lot of passing rather than actually good racing which is a shame as quantity over quality will never be the right approach.
I’d much rather see a bit less passing and a bit more proper racing with drivers been challenged more in terms of having to go for real overtakes that are actually exciting to watch & more memorable than the DRS highway passes F1 has been ruined by over the past 13 years.
I mean serious question.
What DRS pass is something that was truly exciting & memorable?
What DRS created moment stands up there with moments like Senna/Mansell at Barcelona 1991?
What DRS pass has made you go ‘wow what a pass’?
It’s done nothing but create a series of boring, unexciting, uninteresting & utterly forgettable quantity over quality highway passes and perhaps more damming has got a whole generation of fans & drivers used to see push of a button highway passes to the point where going back to fewer genuine overtakes is seen as a massive negative from those who know nothing else but DRS.
Not to mention how it’s trickled down & ruined the racing in lower categories that are supposed to be about pure racing & teaching drivers proper racecraft.
DRS was supposed to be a temporary band-aid, It was supposed to be something that would only be used where needed & it was supposed to be something that was long gone by now. Yet let’s be honest F1, Liberty & the FIA do nothing but lie about the true intention, It was never about creating better racing it was also about padding the stat books & the thought of those stats going down even if the actual racing ends up been better is something that they will never do now because even when DRS as it is now goes away in 2026 something just as bad & just as gimmicky is going to replace it.
It’s show over sport via quantity over quality & F1 should be embarrassed thats it’s taken overtaking & turned it into something everyone can do at the push of a button!
Jere (@jerejj)
12th September 2024, 14:29
@roger-ayles Easy-looking passing has only been an occasional thing in Baku & since FIA reduced the zone length by 100 meters for last year’s edition, only to revert to the original starting point clearly shows that the reduction caused unnecessarily excessive DRS train effect, so unlikely that overtaking would be any easier than in 2022, considering how much more difficult following is at present & will only keep getting harder.
As for your questions 1 & 3:
Any pass, regardless of whether DRS gets activated or not, that gets completed in the braking zone or at the turning point, etc.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
12th September 2024, 20:37
Yes, I’d rather watch racing than passing. This adjustment’s a big turn-off for the Baku GP for me. Isn’t that straight long enough already? There’s plenty of intrigue – whose car will be quickest this time, how will Bearman get on – but it’ll be less interesting watching them get there.
Jere (@jerejj)
13th September 2024, 9:18
No less interesting than pre-2023.