Ok guys, i was wondering, how does the DRS rule work here? Lets say Hamilton is chasing Button, in a DRS activated zone. He activates the wing to get close to Button's slipstream, passes Button, and the moment he touches the brakes, the wing closes. Now, in this situation, will Button be allowed to use his DRS wing to defend? I realized after watching Turkey, there was a 3 car battle, MS, Sutil i think, and Massa maybe. I saw Massa chasing MS, and MS had his DRS wing working, because he too was chasing Sutil. SO, does this means that Sutil is totally powerless? Does this mean, in the earlier scenario, Button is powerless as well? P/s : Sorry i could not recall who was the 3rd driver in the MS-Massa situation.
During the race, there is a detection zone prior to the DRS activation zone. If any car is within 1 second of another car at the detection zone, then they can use the DRS. A chain of four cars at detection, the last three can use it, the lead car cannot. If the 2nd car can get past the lead car after the detection zone and at the beginning of the DRS zone, he can continue to use the DRS to get away from the car he passed, even though that lead car still cannot use it. It all has to do with the order in the detection zone.
Yes, the lead car essentially becomes "dead meat". Every car within 1 second of the leader gets to use the DRS. And ever car within 1 second of anyone in the line of cars after "dead meat" also gets to use DRS. Thus there needs to be a gap of over 1.0 seconds for the cars in the line following "dead meat" not to get to be able to use the DRS. Aerodynamically, instead of all of the airflow above the wing being directed up at something like 70 degrees off the trailing edge of the rear wing (1000 pounds of DF), something like 25%-30% now goes out under the upper wing and thereby the overall airflow leaves the wing at something like a 45 degree angle, and the wing is now only producing 700 pounds of DF. The car also looses a lot of the drag created by the rear wing. This lack of drag means that power that was being used to continue top speed against the wind, can now be used to accelerate the car to a higher max velocity (+12-ish MPH).
Drafting has always worked like that. It just hasn't worked in F1 for years...now it does. You have to get within a second first, so in theory you have to be faster anyway.
Thanks, but i still feel it's a bit unfair for the dead meat car. Having said that, i'm not complaining, i think the FIA has done a lot to improvise racing for this season.
Yes it is entertaining, but it really makes the pass a bit cheap. Two evenly matched cars could trade the position back and forth on successive laps due to DRS. It is a bit like complaining that there is not enough scoring in soccer, so every two minutes we will have penalty kicks. The end score is 27-25. Lots of goals, but somewhat meaningless in the context of displaying the skill of the soccer players. Instead of, GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLL, you would hear, "oh, look, they scored again.
I think it is also balanced out to a degree when you consider that while the defending car can't use the DRS, it can still use the KERS
Yeah, because the tire degradation (yet another gimmick) is so rapid that you rarely get evenly matched cars. If I recall, the two McLarens at Turkey went back and forth in the early/mid stages of the race, largely aided by DRS. It all just seems a bit contrived to me. I agree that DRS sort of brings drafting back to Formula 1, but it would have been simpler and less costly to further decrease wing size and diffuser efficiency. Perhaps making efforts to increase braking distance would also help. At least then you have two cars racing for a position rather than a staged show where one is hobbled and the other advantaged. Then you add KERS to the equation and "racing" becomes a button pushing game. I find the GP2 race more enjoyable to watch then F1 this year, even though it is a spec series. They have pretty good performance with fallible drivers who are willing to take risks. Sometimes it works out, sometimes not, but at least you can readily identify a skillful driver over one who has mastered all of the engineering gimmicks.
