George Russell wasn’t the only driver whose DRS opened when it shouldn’t have done during the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc was shocked to see his DRS open as he navigated the high-speed turns 11 and 12 on lap 48 of the race.The Ferrari driver initially thought something had gone wrong with his car. “What the hell have you done?” he demanded of race engineer Bryan Bozzi as soon as he reached the next straight.
Leclerc was unaware race control had given him and other drivers full manual control over their DRS due to the problem they had encountered with George Russell’s car.
Ordinarily the system only allows drivers to use DRS inside the prescribed zones and when within a second of a car ahead, as laid down by the rules. Race control chose to override the automated system during the grand prix.
Drivers were still required to obey the rules of using DRS, as Bozzi told his driver:
| Lap: 49/57 LEC: 1’37.658 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leclerc | Leclerc’s DRS opens briefly between turns 11 and 12 What the hell have you done? Why do I have DRS on all the time now? |
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| Bozzi | Norris, 0.4 behind, do not use it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bozzi | So there have been issues with transponders, you can only use it when I tell you. Norris attacks Leclerc at turn four but runs off the track on the outside |
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| Bozzi | And Norris 0.7 behind. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Race control switched to manual DRS operation for some cars due to a failure of the automated system for Russell’s car, which would have left him unable to use DRS. Russell was the next car ahead of Leclerc on the track and the pair were separated by less than two seconds at the time.
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Leclerc did not have the opportunity to legitimately use DRS until one occasion after Lando Norris overtook him. He then fell back out of DRS range and was told he could not use DRS again:
| Lap: 51/57 LEC: 1’37.279 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bozzi | Norris 0.8. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bozzi | Norris 0.6. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bozzi | Norris 0.5, brake balance minus one. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bozzi | Six laps to go, six laps to go. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 52/57 LEC: 1’38.423 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bozzi | Norris passes Leclerc on the outside of turn four. Leclerc is within a second of him as they reach the next detection point Use DRS, use DRS. |
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| Bozzi | Norris 1.5 so do not use DRS. Do not use DRS. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Leclerc was not investigated for using DRS outside of the permitted area. Russell was, and Ferrari advised Leclerc to stay as close to him as he could in case the Mercedes driver received a penalty.
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Although the stewards ruled Russell did use DRS when he should not have done, he was not penalised:
| Lap: 53/57 LEC: 1’37.583 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bozzi | Russell 37.3. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bozzi | So Russell will be investigated potentially for using DRS when he couldn’t, so let’s try and target five seconds to him, he’s 3.4. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 54/57 LEC: 1’37.794 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bozzi | Norris has three strikes so still open. Russell 37.4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 55/57 LEC: 1’37.586 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bozzi | Russell 3.8, 37.4. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bozzi | [State of charge] four. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bozzi | We need [state of charge] four. Gap to Russell 3.9. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 56/57 LEC: 1’37.666 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bozzi | Russell 37.4, 4.0 ahead. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 57/57 LEC: 1’38.273 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bozzi | And last lap, gap to Russell 3.9, 37.8. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chequered flag | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bozzi | And Russell 4.1 Reminder, pick up. Charge button on. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leclerc | Any news of penalties? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leclerc | No, no news. No news for now. We just told you the gap. We’ll see later. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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2025 Bahrain Grand Prix
- Hamilton making “drastic shift” in driving style to master Ferrari’s car
- Leclerc revealed Ferrari strategy details to Gasly before Bahrain Grand Prix
- Lawson made “very significant step forward” in Bahrain – Mekies
- Russell’s transponder was ‘frazzled and charred’ after Bahrain Grand Prix DRS drama
- “Don’t give me too much now”: Hamilton’s search for speed at Ferrari continues
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
15th April 2025, 12:46
I’ll be fascinated to read about how all this occurred. I doubt it’s a secret, but it’s a window into how these things work (transponders, race control, who can disable what, turn it off and on again etc).
Unwittingly opening DRS on a high speed corner can’t have been fun for Charles. If he got hurt, I’m sure there would be more questions about how this can happen.
Jere (@jerejj)
15th April 2025, 13:38
The matter of transponders, timing, DRS usage, etc., is indeed fully open information, & the random activation by itself could’ve definitely caused an accident, which fortunately didn’t happen or otherwise, maybe DRS usage might get further restricted for the remaining 2025 rounds.
Sumedh
15th April 2025, 12:58
Shouldn’t Bozzi have informed him that DRS is manual? How naive is that?
Jere (@jerejj)
15th April 2025, 13:31
Maybe he didn’t know any sooner.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
15th April 2025, 18:48
The FIA should have informed people that they’d set DRS to manual. They didn’t (it seemed to be a surprise in general, not just to Ferrari). That’s a basic safety issue.
Jere (@jerejj)
15th April 2025, 19:40
@alianora-la-canta Definitely & since the matter concerns FIA out of all, I’m not very hopeful they’d act any differently if the same situation arose again in any remaining DRS-existence period GP.
Andy (@andyfromsandy)
15th April 2025, 13:01
Wait until next year as I believe DRS or rather moveable aero will be auto (FIA) controlled.
Jere (@jerejj)
15th April 2025, 13:35
To my understanding, active aero will be freely usable for everyone during the races like DRS in practice, qualifying, & test sessions in 2011-12.
Alternatively, within designated zones, but on every single lap under normal conditions like DRS in practice, qualifying, & test sessions since 2013 rather than having any further usage restrictions since that system won’t have a pre-determined gap detection measurement like DRS has always had in the races & sprints.
S Arkazam
15th April 2025, 15:22
DRS will be gone and two systems will be introduced.
– moveable aero; for all teams to use all the time (slicker cars on the straights; objective: reduce energy consumption)
– MOM an electronic version of DRS (more boost for the chasing car). Downside 1: a type of DRS – unfair advantage – remains; downside 2: fans cannot see it anymore as it’s all electronic.
Jere (@jerejj)
15th April 2025, 17:05
S Arkazam Indeed, although while the Manual Override Mode will partly act as a basically electronic version of DRS, its operation is ultimately like with KERS & ERS, i.e., getting a brief boost to freely utilize throughout a lap, with the impact of having more boost to use than the driver ahead applicable from timing line back around to timing line at once to my understanding.
S Arkazam
15th April 2025, 19:05
No it’s not!
It’s much more like DRS as it can only be used for chasing cars which are within a certain distance to the car ahead.
Don’t be fooled by the marketing spiel of FIA.
Jere (@jerejj)
15th April 2025, 19:50
S Arkazam Yes, but that certain distance or time interval is based on how closely drivers cross the timing line on any given circuit rather than on detection points located at different parts of circuits for designated utilization zones like with DRS, & yes, MoM’s availability in the sprints & races will be based on a pre-determined gap.
However, what I essentially mean is that the actual utilization itself won’t be limited to certain circuit sections only but that MoM will be utilizable throughout a lap like KERS & ERS, so in this regard, it’s essentially a mixture of both DRS & KERS/ERS.
AlanD
15th April 2025, 19:19
Lots of interesting info here about DRS and its offspring. I thinking now that since they can accurately detect cars going over transponders down to the millisecond, maybe they could put transponder loops on particulatly troublesome corners where drivers are exceeding track limits, and say that if you trigger that transponder, your electronic moveable aero won’t work for the next sixty seconds. That would give a good incentive to drivers to not exceed track limits, it would be instant karma, and it wouldn’t depend on someone looking at a screen trying to decide if all four wheels were over the white line at the same time. Just position the transponder at, say, one meter beyond the white line, and automatically penalise any car that triggers it.
Jere (@jerejj)
15th April 2025, 19:53
AlanD I couldn’t agree more. FIA should indeed finally once & for all place detection loops for track limit enforcement purposes so that lap time invalidation would always happen automatically with immediate effect & temporarily disabling moveable aero as well would also be okay, albeit less important than lap time invalidation, especially after Hulkenberg’s situation, which arose because his track limit breach on his latter Q1 attempt didn’t lead to immediate lap time invalidation as it should’ve.
mantresx (@mantresx)
15th April 2025, 21:28
Yeah, but going down to milisecond -time- doesn’t necessarily mean they could measure down to the milimiter -distance- Which is the level of precision required here.
To give you an idea, a car going at 100kph will travel about 1 inch in a milisecond, so the current system would not good enough at the moment.
Some will say it’s easy to just run transponders and loops faster for microsecond accuracy, but at that point you’re looking at replacing all the transponders on the cars, data capture systems and re-calibrate them on each individual race… definitely not trivial to go down an order of magnitude in time capture.
AlanD
16th April 2025, 19:56
Mantresx, I completely understand what you are saying, but I’m not looking for millimeter accuracy. I am not arguing for the sensors to be exactly at the edge of the lines. Instead I am saying the white line should be a visual guide for the driver, and if they keep within the white lines they’ll be certain to be safe. But exceed those lines and they are likely to trip the sensor, and then it is a no-argument penalty. Maybe in practice you’ll find drivers can go several millimeters beyond the line, maybe ten centimeters, depends on how accurate they can make it, but whatever the margin for error needed, it doesn’t really matter. It will be the same for all drivers, and it won’t need someone to squint at a slomo replay, trying to decide whether or not they completely crossed the white line. It doesn’t even have to be based on the same tech as the timing loops. It could just be a mechanical pressure plate sensor, touch it with a tyre and you’ve comitted a foul. It just seems like the world’s most high-tech sport relies too much on low-tech eyeballing and subjective judgements.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
15th April 2025, 13:03
At least he got the opportunity to ask the question, unlike Jack Doohan at Suzuka.
Mark
15th April 2025, 13:15
Might have been safer and less ambiguous to disable DRS for the whole field.
rsp123 (@rsp123)
15th April 2025, 13:27
+1
S Arkazam
15th April 2025, 15:23
and to be safe, for the rest of the season :P
grat
16th April 2025, 1:01
Safe, but dull.
An Sionnach
15th April 2025, 17:56
Yes. Allowing drivers to enable it anywhere at any time could result in a serious crash. Should something like this happen again, they should disable DRS.
amped
16th April 2025, 23:49
Disabling DRS assumes they had the ability to do so.
Jere (@jerejj)
15th April 2025, 13:31
@bullfrog Apples to oranges because Doohan simply forgot to deactivate DRS in time rather than activating by itself or not deactivating despite trying to do so.
Dex
15th April 2025, 15:40
Well, that’s what they concluded back then, but now we have a reason to doubt it at least. Maybe he didn’t forget, but the system was acting out, and he didn’t press the “right” button or something; or it wasn’t registered.
If we listen to the officials, they didn’t take any responsibility for all of this in Bahrain either. Only indirectly, by not penalizing Russell.
Jere (@jerejj)
15th April 2025, 16:56
Dex Good point & thinking through again, perhaps Doohan’s case should be re-looked, after all, although he activates DRS via a button or switch on the backside like most drivers, so I don’t see how he could’ve realistically pressed anything he wasn’t supposed to, but at least the system acting out & failing to register is definitely a possibility.
Jere (@jerejj)
15th April 2025, 13:30
I saw the screenshot image yesterday & I’m still surprised it wasn’t picked up during the race,
I’d already been told elsewhere that Leclerc also had DRS issues, which means that a total of three drivers had a glitch in the DRS system at one point or another.
The lack of investigation on his brief activation without driver input is even more surprising, given his situation is barely different from Russell’s brief activation when trying to use the radio.
While Russell & Leclerc had DRS getting randomly activated by itself once each, Norris didn’t suffer the same, albeit his pre-indication LED remained lit for a little while, & based on Leclerc’s immediate reaction, I assume he also had his pre-indication LED lit for a little while.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
15th April 2025, 18:52
@jerejj The difference is that Russell’s was already known and noted. Leclerc’s not only showed it couldn’t have been a deliberate activation (no driver would voluntarily activate DRS when they’re trying to brake, and in fact DRS is designed to prevent that). It also gave the stewards information that may have helped exonerate Russell.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
15th April 2025, 13:53
How brazen is it of Ferrari to think that they might be able to capitalise on a penalty for Russell when they’ve done the exact same thing!
I seem to recall Mercedes saying something about Russell having to do something on the steering wheel / dash to enable manual operation, but Ferrari seems to have automatically enabled manual operation, to the point that the driver is unaware of a setting change?
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
15th April 2025, 18:52
@eurobrun Hardly brazen when a) they knew theirs was accidental and b) they didn’t know whether Mercedes’ was.
Miguel Bento (@miguelbento)
15th April 2025, 14:14
I don’t get this. Isn’t the driver the one who opens the DRS (and also closes either manually or when braking)? If that is the case, why is Leclerc complaining? He was the one who opened it, right?
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
15th April 2025, 14:17
Russell’s DRS opened when he pressed the radio button, might have been a similar case for Leclerc, especially as it is not a place that is a DRS zone (nor one where you would want to open it).
Jere (@jerejj)
15th April 2025, 16:57
@hunocsi Yes & probably indeed a similar glitch of DRS getting activated by itself when trying to use the radio.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
15th April 2025, 18:53
@miguelbento Nobody would choose to open DRS at that point of the track. He’s complaining because he’d been given no reason to believe anyone else would either. Apparently the FIA knew better.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
15th April 2025, 14:50
Is the dual-function button a new way to stop drivers complaining (and swearing) over the radio?
Jere (@jerejj)
15th April 2025, 17:00
The dual-function button or switch is merely a backup method inside the cockpits, but I doubt it has anything to do with FIA trying to attempt something regarding radio comms.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
15th April 2025, 18:54
@bullfrog Pretty sure this feature, if true, would cause more swearing rather than less…
asz
15th April 2025, 19:52
But not over the radio, that is the point.
SteveP
15th April 2025, 20:52
Interesting idea, but flawed – the drivers are likely to produce some “choice words” between the time of the button press doing the wrong thing and the impact with the barrier…
Craig
15th April 2025, 15:45
I dare say someone at FOM will be having a busy week going over all the transponder logs to figure out what happened.
SteveR (@stever)
15th April 2025, 16:41
And I dare say it’s someone at the FIA who will be having a busy week…
Jere (@jerejj)
15th April 2025, 17:00
@stever Indeed or both.
Witan
15th April 2025, 17:01
Odd that Russell was investigated but LeClerc not for the same offence. Tempted to wonder about the old FIA.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
15th April 2025, 18:54
Sequencing. By the time the FIA found out about Leclerc’s occurrence, Russell had already been noted.
Coventry Climax
16th April 2025, 12:24
So the second customer to steal a diamond ring goes free?
Or, if it was an employee that put those rings in both customer’s pockets, then punish the employee, and neither of the customers.
Whichever way you look at it, it makes no sense and was handled wrongly and amateuristically. Again.
SteveP
15th April 2025, 20:58
I prefer to think that Russell was unable to use DRS because he was some 7 seconds behind Piastri, just like he had been before the SC bunched everyone.
OK, he had a fault that would have stopped it working if he had been within 1 second, but he wasn’t.