The new generation of Formula 1 cars designed on the ground effect concept which have been introduced at the start of the 2022 championship, had the clear goal of making on track action more entertaining by providing drivers more passing opportunities given the fact that cars lose less downforce when running behind an opponent.
Yet one feature that became clear during the 2022 Formula 1 campaign was that the DRS offset between closed and open was much more powerful. As a result, it became much easier for cars to pass the rival ahead at some race circuits once they were able to get close behind.
This situation related to the DRS overtakes was not ideal and it could now lead to some changes from the FIA, who is analyzing the data from the 2022 season and may decide to shorten some of the activation zones in the next championship.
Chief aerodynamicist Nikolas Tombazis, currently working as FIA’s single seater technical director, feels that an easy passing move for a driver when within DRS range is not a positive aspect for the on track show and is in fact just as bad as situations in which faster cars behind cannot overtake the car in front.
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In a discussion with Autosport regarding possible changes for the 2023 F1 campaign, Nikolas Tombazis explained: “In some races, we may well need to actually reduce the DRS zones. We don’t want overtaking to be, as we say, inevitable or actually easy. It still has to be a fight. If it happens too quickly, if you just see a car approaching and then going by and disappearing, it’s actually worse than being at the back and fighting. It needs the right balance to be found there.” – the Single Seater Technical Director added.
Formula 1’s outgoing managing director of motorsport Ross Brawn explained a few weeks ago that he did not want the sport’s bosses to be afraid to make DRS moves more difficult:
“The one thing we know is fans, and we know this because we don’t like it, they don’t like the ‘go down the straight, pop the DRS, overtake, drive fast, pull a gap’ all of that. I think in an ideal world DRS is used just to get on the back of someone, so you can really have a decent attack. I think we shouldn’t be afraid to reduce the DRS in places like Monza, because it does seem a bit ‘you get on the back of them, press the button, overtake.’ It’s a bit ritualistic, isn’t it? It’s not very impressive. And so we shouldn’t be afraid to reduce the use of DRS where it’s clearly proving to be too powerful.” – the former Ferrari technical director concluded.
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