DRS in Austria: “It’s going to be Mario Kart”
It was decided that there would be three DRS zones in Austria this weekend, out of a total of four straights. While drivers welcome this additional opportunity to overtake, they fear that overtaking may become too easy.
The balance is complicated to achieve: fans want to see overtakes, but they also want it to be difficult for the drivers. DRS was invented to reduce the aerodynamic drag of a car following a rival, in order to have more overtaking opportunities at the end of the straight.
At the Red Bull Ring, we are almost reaching the limits of the system: originally, there was only one zone per circuit. Over the years, more and more circuits have benefited from a second zone. Now a third zone is becoming popular. But on a circuit as small as the Red Bull Ring, this means that almost all the straights are equipped with this feature.
When asked about the topic in the Austrian paddock, Romain Grosjean told us: “We’ll see what it will bring. On paper, I’m not a fan because I feel it’s going to be like Mario Kart.” Indeed, the Haas driver fears that drivers will spend all their time overtaking each other before every corner. It is thus amusing that Sebastian Vettel, during his own press conference, also mentioned the same video game to describe the upcoming race, noting that he used to enjoy playing it as a child…
Their rivals thus expressed the same fear of seeing artificial overtakes, which everyone agrees will be numerous, just like the usually reticent Kimi Räikkönen: « Half of the track has the DRS. So it shouldn’t be very hard to overtake. But hey, it’s a bit artificial… »
Remains to be seen what is preferable between a long procession, with no overtaking, or if an avalanche of overtakes is ultimately better, even if the drivers’ talent is not pushed to its maximum to perform such a maneuver.
From our special correspondent at the Red Bull Ring
