Drivers can’t use DRS for full length of Shanghai’s longest straight

2011 Chinese Grand Prix

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Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso, Shanghai, 2010

The FIA has confirmed drivers will not be allowed to use the Drag Reduction System along the full length of Shanghai’s straight during the race.

Drivers will be allowed to deploy their DRS 902m before the turn 14 hairpin.

The stretch between turns 13 and 14 is the longest on the calendar, measuring 1,170m.

Here is an FIA diagram showing where drivers can deploy DRS (click to enlarge):

DRS zone for Shanghai

As usual, drivers will have free use of the DRS in practice and qualifying, including the full length of the straight.

Update: The FIA have shortened the DRS zone to 752 metres ahead of the race.

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    105 comments on “Drivers can’t use DRS for full length of Shanghai’s longest straight”

    1. The stretch between turns 13 and 14 is the longest on the calendar, measuring 1,170m.

      I was under the impression the back straight of Abu Dhabi was the longest on the calendar at 1.2km …

      1. Funny you should mention that. This from Mercedes:

        Other circuits may dispute the fact, but the Shanghai International Circuit currently boasts the longest straight in Formula One. The run from turns 13 to 14 totals 1170m […]

        This is the longest straight encountered during the Formula One season, closely followed by Abu Dhabi (1140m), Monza (1120m) and Yeongam (1050m).

        1. I guess its a bit to do with where you start and end the straights in measuring.

        2. Maybe I’m mixing it up with Fuji.

        3. And out of those 4 long straights how many have been biult by Tilke?

          Monza … no
          Abu Dhabi … tick
          Korea … tick
          China … tick

          A bit sad the state of F1 currently…

        4. The maximum distance that could possibly be driven in a straight line (more in theory than in reality) and the actual distance that can be driven on the racing line on that straight can differ by quite a lot, so its no surprise that there are different numbers from different sources.

      2. PM, and I always thought you had such a wealth of knowledge at your fingertips!

        1. Hey, it’s not like I’ve got this written down somewhere. I’m just going by what I remember.

      3. I was under impression the straight in Korea and the straight in Abu Dhabi were longer than the one in China…

        1. Ignore that comment – I was too slow! :P

    2. I thought the longest straight is now in India or Korea?

    3. Oops! My bad!

    4. Good thing to do by the FIA. Otherwise overtaking would be too easy.

      1. I am hoping that there is a heavy dose of sarcasm in here?!

        1. Why? It was almost too easy in Malaysia in my opinion, only when the driver behind lacked KERS (Webber) or DRS (Alonso), there were fights rather than overtakings.

          1. My point exactly. 900 Meters of DRS is a very long way, thats a whole kilometer on which they will have the equivalent of a 15kph boost for. If they can’t make that stick, they can’t make anything stick. It was more or less too certain in malaysia – so surely 900m is still too far, especially on a straight where overtaking is guaranteed anyway!

            1. Ok, now I understand what you ment, you’re right, the problem is I don’t know how long the straight in Sepang is. If it is shorter than 900m, then 900m is probably too much. What I ment is that it’s good they won’t be able to use it for the entire straight of 1170m, that would be even worse.

            2. Actually, the pit straight in Sepang is over 1km, so, I don’t think this should be too bad, even if making it a bit shorter would probably be better.

            3. Actually, the pit straight in Sepang is over 1km

              We went through this before on the site, the longest straight in Malaysia is 927m.

            4. but in the race if they have the same top gear ratio, then it wont matter if DRS is open after the chasing car reaches top speed

            5. If the Sepang straight is 927m, then 902m is probably reasonable. Melbourne was 867m. Personally I’d like to see them try about 800m. I think that would be around the right length at most circuits to aid in overtaking, but not make it easy by any stretch.

      2. But once the driver has overtaken does he get to use the DRS till the end of the zone or does he have to close it?

        1. He’s got it until he has to brake. Or he releases it manually.

          1. wont the engine bounce on the limiter a bit too quickly if the DRS is deployed on a long straight like this one?

            1. Not if they set the ratios high enough.

            2. Yeah, on a straight like that I would reckon 315kph might be a good benchmark. The Renault was hitting the limit at 304kph in Sepang so it’s bound to be higher in China.

            3. That’s why DRS is allowed in qualifying. It will force the drivers to set up their gearbox to allow the DRS enhanced top speeds.

      3. Because of the size of the straight, overtaking by slip streaming should be sufficient

        1. If you ignore the characteristics of the corner before the straight.

        2. then how come the renault last year was bouncing on the limiter? the time when i think vettel tried to pass button and then ended up crashing into his side pod? I thought engines had a physical limit beyond which it couldn’t rev any more?

          1. they do. You set 18000rpm to be 315kph or whatever you like, then it sits like that in parc ferme after Practice 3. Teams balance this with the whole circuit though… if a driver feels that hitting 18000rpm in 7th right at the end of the main straight leaves him with too much headroom in the other straights (not getting anywhere near 18000 on piut straight for example) then they’ll leave it at say 312kph, giving more power in the other straights. Most teams will play with these options in the first few runs in Practice 1 and 2 and decide for sure over friday night before setting it finalised on Saturday morning. Having one really long straight but lots of tight and twisty corners like here in Shanghai provides the option for several different approaches. A car that maxes out ast 310kph will reach that speed quicker, and may lose less time over the entire lap than a car that maxes out at 320 but only reaches that speed once per lap… go play Gran Turismo or F1 2010 and play with these settings it’s fairly obvioous once you grasp the concept of it. Engine limits are set, but not gear ratios, teams decide themselves.

    5. that is still a huge distance – nearly 1km to have in order to overtake! If you can’t get ahead with that much space then really you are doing something wrong!

      1. i think this is an attempt to handicap red bull slightly. if a team with superior straight line speed starts winning, the FIA will react with shorter DRS activation zones on secondary straights… that’s my guess. they want this championship to go down to the wire, even if it takes a little manipulation.

        1. Red Bull have the fastest car. Who’s going to overtake them?

          1. Mouse_Nightshirt
            14th April 2011, 0:01

            Everyone going by poor Mark Webber :P

    6. This annoys me – there will be plenty of overtaking on this straight anyway… why not use it for the entirity of, say, the straight after turn 10, or failing that, the pit straight?

      I’m a big fan of DRS – as I don’t think it makes the pass for you, they seem to have the balance just right, it just gives a boost rather than being an “overtaking button” as it has been described.

      I hope we have more races like Malaysia – really enjoyed it.

      1. I agree with you and said something similar about Malaysia, but I don’t think that place would produce any overtaking. Like in Malaysia, I think the best alternative place would be after Turn 2.

        1. In fact… looking at the track map, I think the best place for it would be between 4 and 6 – with heavy breaking into 6.

          1. Sorry, I didn’t realise they were designated as individual corners. I thought Turn 4 was “Turn 2”!

      2. I claimed it should be on the pit straight yesterday. For me, it would be much better to create a new overtaking oppurtunity rather than make what is one of the most common overtaking spots in F1 a lot easier.

        Other than that, would it not be better to 5/6 hundred metres or so of the straight, putting the following car firmly in the slip-stream and leaving them to make the move from there.

        Both these solutions would make the balance a bit more like Aus, which for me was better.

        1. *better to be 5/6 hundred metres or so at the beginning of the straight…

        2. Also, if DRS was enabled on the pit straight it would give the leading car a better chance of defending (if it had KERS).

    7. I don’t understand how to FIA make up some of the number they publish…

      Why 902m? Why not 900m or 1,000m? Why the stupid extra 2m?

      Rant over,
      Good Day!

      1. I’m sure it’s calculated and not “made up” – but I do agree with you in sentiment. Like driving tests starting at 11.03… why? Madness… but i’m sure there’s a reason for it.

        1. The first man to measure the height of Mt Everest calculated it at precisely 29,000ft, but he was scared that if he said that then everyone would assume he just made it up, so he said he had calculated it at 29,002ft. Maybe the FIA want everyone to think that they’re genuinely placing effort into working out cornering speeds, aerodynamics and acceleration in order to identify a perfect distance for the track. As opposed to them just using common sense to say ‘here’ and ‘here’.

          ps: I concur with other statements which say that this should have been on the pit-straight.

        2. The 902 m will be down to where exactly the timing loops are placed (the DRS activation zone has to be on a timing loop for accuracy reasons).

          The driving test is at x:03 because putting appointments at times other than the whole hour, half-hour or quarter-hour points increases the proportion of people who turn up on time – possibly because x:03 is more memorable.

    8. Why is it on the backstraight at all? Surely its long enough to get a tow and make a pass without it? Maybe the pit straight would be a better choice?

      1. Of course not, that would be too logical for the FIA.

      2. They are speed limited in the pit straight, so I doubt DRS would have any effect :)

        1. LOL
          speaking of which, does anyone know why Buemi’s penalty at Sepang was a stop-go and not a drive-thru? Did he massively flout the limit and charge up pit lane??

            1. Oh of course, didn’t think to check STR’s race breakdown. Thanks!

    9. I think they’ve done the right thing about not letting them use the whole straight. It would be far too easy to breeze around otherwise.

      1. agreed, especially the KERS cars. It would be a metaphorical blood bath.

      2. True, perhaps they also don’t want cars reaching Vmax too early on the straight and bouncing off the rev limiter for the last 3-400m.

    10. Isn’t the drs activation line somewhere around where the slipstream usually starts to come into affect anyway?… Does anyone see a potential “webber at valencia” situation when drivers push the magic button?

    11. I am afraid that will make it too easy to overtake. A short burst of DRS from turn 4 to 6 or 10 to 11 could maybe create some new overtaking opportunities, instead of making the established overtaking spots easier. There is plenty of overtakes down that back straight anyway. But the FIA is the experts, i think they know what they are doing. At least i think it worked fine the last two races.

    12. Maybe the only logic behind using the back straight is that if the DRS was on the pit straight, one driver could overtake at the hairpin/turn 15, then the overtaken driver will be in the 1 second zone for DRS detection, presumably place before turn 16, and then just immediately take the place back down the pit straight into turn 1.

      I doubt that makes sense, but it works in my head.

      1. that sounds exciting to me!

    13. This is as exciting as the tyre supplier press conference. Racing is almost taking a secondary role to KERS, DRS, stage managed tyes and interfering Stewards.

    14. The people above make an excellent point.
      DRS should be used in a place that makes a point on the track not normally an overtaking point into a possible overtaking point or a very difficult one a bit easier.
      Not an easy one a certainty.

    15. Agreed… With any luck the drivers will be able to make some good moves at the other overtaking areas around the track (namely turn 6 & 11) that we’ll all be talking about come monday morning.

    16. I agree with the comments above. The DRS zone should not be on that straight, as we always get overtaking into turn 14 (or at least appear to from what I can remember).

      That’s a bit of a shame, hopefully we don’t just see every overtake happen at that one corner. We haven’t had that so far this season, but maybe that will be the case here. It will be interesting to see.

    17. I have to say this is getting silly now, the whole DRS thing should be scraped. It basicly amounts to cutting the leading drivers engine power when someones behind him, it’s not racing, it’s not overtaking, it’s manufactured pap for people with no attention span.

      1. 100% agree.

    18. Advantage KERS is amplified. Charlie and his McLaren-Ferrari tango.

    19. As others have said, the DRS zone is way too long on that straight definitely.

      The problem there is that at the beginning of that straight you are going to punch the KERS button to pull you out of turn 13 at this point the aero drag isn’t too bad so the DRS wouldn’t be a massive effect anyway, there will be a point where drag does play significantly into it (and possibly after your KERS runs out) before the DRS zone but it will be fairly short, you then hit your DRS just as drag becomes a real issue at high speeds and you sail past your opponent.

      If I were the opponent I would then save my KERS for the drive out of the final corner and try to get a run at them into turn 1 but with the entry speed, braking while turning and bump that might be very difficult.

      However I now have a few questions:

      1) DRS rules – I presume the car behind can use DRS to pass and then if clean past just leave it wide open until the braking zone – possibly making a huge advantage and ruining the racing at the end of the straight?
      2) The ‘passed car’ cannot activate once the other person is past? (I very much suspect this is the case)

      And one more point:

      Gear ratios: due to the length of the DRS zone you would dearly love to have a HUGE top gear so you can sail past and keep going but this will heavily damage your top speed when you aren’t in the DRS zone (most of the race) – this may negate *some* (but by no means all) of the big advantages of the long DRS zone – I suspect people will not run massively long top gears because it will hurt their average pace too much so you are going to see lots of cars bouncing off limiters all the way down that straight with DRS on. Either that or people will run a sixth gear that does most of the work on the straight most laps and use seventh as an overdrive but surely they would lose too much advantage around the rest of the track with such a long sixth? This would be the best setup for quali/race mix though I would think as you will need all the pace you can get down the back straight.

      Anyway – DRS, I think it’s a stop-gap measure to reduce the problems of ‘dirty air’ from the aero to get us through to a better solution (return of ground effect) in a few seasons time. With the lack of a better current resolution I think it’s ‘OK’ and probably better than watching fast cars follow slow ones around without being able to get close to passing, let alone 2 title contenders nose to tail trying to scare each other off the track with no real hope of it.

      Sorry if this post is a bit long!

    20. It seems like the FIA might be a bit out of touch with the average viewer. Like all sports, F1 needs to attract new viewers. With all the technical elements like KERS, DRS etc are fanatic heaven, this just seems like a complication too far.

      It’s like having to explain the offside rule, and then it has variants for each pitch you play on.

      Entertainment is good. Simple is also good. Can’t we just have it for the main straight on every GP?

    21. HounslowBusGarage
      13th April 2011, 12:57

      What will the effect be of having the ‘detection point’ so far away from the ‘activation point’? It looks about 4-500 metres to me.
      I’m guess that the activation point is so far down the straight in order to control the final velocity of the cars as they arrive at turn 14 – is there limited run-off there?

        1. Oops…excuse my dodgy link. It does work.

      1. The rest of my answer is further down the thread because I didn’t hit the reply button but as for the activation point issue, the detection zone is right at a very sharp slow left hand corner and then a quicker but not ‘fast’ right hander – this means that you are more likely to get to within a second within the detection zone due to the concertina effect of braking/accelerating. It’s also a more mechanical grip dependant section.

        I suspect this is because the next corner (or curve rather) is much more aero dependant than the corner the detection point is on. This means that you would lose ground through there if you are close due to dirty air and this is what the DRS is supposed to compensate for.

        That is to say – it measures people at a point where they have been least affected by aero and then lets them make up for the ground lost from travelling so close once they get to the straight…

        1. HounslowBusGarage
          13th April 2011, 15:25

          I understand, but surely if the right hand curve after the detection point is, as you say, more aero dependent and if you are going to lose ground there, by the time both cars get round to the activation point there’s going to be too much space between the cars for the DRS to make any difference.
          Not good English, but I hope it’s intelligible!

          1. I can see what you are saying however the DRS system will work to it’s maximum differential over non activation under 2 conditions

            1) High speed
            2) Outside of a slipstream

            The reason for this is because when you are at low speed or in a slipstream your drag is less than it would be at high speed or when your car is breaking the air itself.

            If you are a second or so behind (even if you have dropped another tenth back through the right hander) your car is probably not picking up much of a tow any more however this means that you will get a large differential of using the DRS compared to if you had not been able to use it. You are knocking off huge drag in this case. You will then close up on your opponent much quicker as he still has a lot of drag and you will then slipstream him giving you a double aero advantage. The further down the straight you get the higher the speed gets and the air gets MUCH harder to break through, increasing your advantage all the way. When you pop out to overtake you lose the tow but you are now ‘sling shooting’ around the other car and you are probably nearing vmax meaning that your advantage of reduced drag from the DRS is actually operating at it’s maximum potential relative to a non activated DRS – as long as your gearing allows it you should be significantly quicker than the car without DRS activated.

            The effect of DRS down that straight *should* be much greater than the slight aero disadvantage of that right hander.

            1. HounslowBusGarage
              13th April 2011, 20:16

              Understand. Let’s see how it works out on Sunday.

    22. why 902 ?

      what was the problem with 900? I wonder how long was the meeting to decide: “900 is waaaaaaaay to short, we need AT LEAST 902 meters”

      1. Someone is being paid to make that decision, don’t belittle their job! ;)

        Enough sarcasm?

        1. Maybe it’s a lucky number.

          The whole enterprise is absurd. Somebody with a calculator is deciding now whether how much excitement we should have to take. Do we not recall all the great battles into 14 last year? Hamilton had to work to get by Schumacher, for example, and that was good stuff. But who likes battles when we can have passes. Welcome to the Show.

          1. To be fair, F1 has always been about calculators so there’s nothing new there. That’s one of the things that excites me so much about it.

    23. Seems sensible to me. I think Sepang was just on the threshold between allowing drivers to get within enough to battle it out with their brakes, not just allowing them to actually get in front before the corner.

    24. HounslowBusGarage – going off memory if your brakes failed you would be in serious trouble but the run off area is quite generous. I don’t think the final velocity has too much to do with the placement it’s more the calculation of overtaking chance.

      The driver can use it at all times in quali so it’s not a safety issue related to run-off.

    25. I am not a fan of the new moveable rear wing but if they have it why mess about with where you can and can’t use it. Drivers can use it wherever they want during practise and qualifying so why stop them in the race. I just think sometmes the FIA make rules for the sake of making rules. Just let them race and utilise all the tools available to them!!

    26. I’m sure that by the time the DRS is activated they’ll be doing 160 to 170 mph anyway, so the effect will be minimal.

      1. Surely then it would have *maximum* effect. The faster you are going to more effect it will have.

    27. it is probably set to 900m for safety reason else they would be going too fast into the brakeing zone

    28. in regards to the 902 metres, my guess would be its 900 of track plus the approximate length of an f1 car.

      1. HounslowBusGarage
        13th April 2011, 20:20

        Hardly. Two metres is six feet seven inches. An F1 car is well over four metres.

    29. These rules only serve to reinforce how much of a cheap gimmick DRS actually is.

    30. I’d have it down the home straight, as the back straight already should provide overtaking opportunities. This could make overtakes too easy. But having said this maybe putting elsewhere would make overtaking FAR too easy. Creating two good chances of overtakes could be a bad thing.

      One thing that disappointed me in Malaysia with the DRS is what Alonso said. He complained about his DRS not working on the straight, meaning he had to make a move elsewhere on the track! Yes you need to plan your overtake and do it in a place where you are quicker than your rival, but to have one overtaking spot on a race isn’t a good thing in my opinion. They should be pushing for an overtake in other parts of the track, not just the DRS zone.

    31. Long Straights suck big time.

      Far much better are long semi curves as the ones the old Hockenheim had. Where it’s not only going fast, but also withstanding the G forces that pull the car outside constantly.

      Same as U turns (also called 180’s). If the outgoing lane is not wide enough to allow multiple racing lines, and allow cars to begin accelerating earlier without rolling to the outside….

      Some people just watch 22 cars going around a track…. some others watch a race.

    32. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      13th April 2011, 18:26

      I saw “MS” on the map and I thought it was Michael Schumacher’s position going down after every turn and straight

    33. Good lord. Some people watch racing for the crashes – at the moment, I’m not watching the racing at all – or at least, the speedy driving that some people insist on calling racing.

      But am watching the regulations and commentary on them for one crash in particular: The train wreck that the sport has become.

      Isn’t it about time for you guys to sit up, shake the dust out of your eyes, and say, ‘Hey, wait a minute! This whole thing is insane!’?

      You’re actually having a conversation about how to correctly position an “overtaking zone” so that there’s jussssst the right amount of passing.

      Can you not see the utter repulsiveness of this?

      Hasn’t enough time gone by for the “let’s wait and see” people to have seen the farce this has made of the sport? Or have you all become so blinded by the false excitement that you can’t remember a time when the racing wasn’t custom-designed to create just the perfect blend of passing and speed and danger to meet the target demographic of new viewers?

      With the level of outright support (and sympathiser-style discussion about implementation which legitimizes DRS) I’m seeing here, “f1traitor” would be a more suitable moniker for this site. I’ve tried to think of a less inflammatory word for it, but I don’t think there is one.

      Disgusting.

      1. sympathiser-style discussion about implementation which legitimizes DRS […] “f1traitor” would be a more suitable moniker for this site.

        Seriously? I think you’re getting a bit carried away.

        First, I’m obviously not going to censor people just because they disagree with you.

        Second, you are far from the first person to point out that discussing where drivers should get overtaking assistance does not reflect well on F1.

        We’ve had discussions about DRS before, we’ll have them again, but if you want people to take your point of view seriously I’d ratchet down the rhetoric by few dozen decibels.

        1. I didn’t – and don’t – advocate censoring anybody. But I do advocate passion for F1.

          And I find it odd that the guy who started f1fanatic is condemning me for being… fanatical about f1. DRS is not just a blip or a little experiment – it’s a fundamental change, a signifier of a complete tearing-down of the nature of motorsport.

          If it’s taken to heart by other series, it could easily see most forms of racing turn into farces like this.

          It wasn’t actually Hemingway who said this, but its spirit (despite my distaste for the other sports) is there: “There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.”

          DRS turns motor racing into a game. It is worth being fanatical about. It is worth making enough noise about that you not only noticed but replied. There are times for quiet, polite reasoning; this is not one of them. DRS – not the thing itself; that’s minor; I refer to the paradigm shift it represents – is the end of motorsport. I am not exaggerating.

          If a team were to employ a remote method to speed up one car so it could overtake the other, there would be outrage. If the FIA hit little buttons to slow down leading car at its whim, to make for more close racing, there would be outrage. If cars that had fallen behind were gradually given more and more power, there would be outrage.

          But DRS is the same as those – or worse – at its most fundamental level. This isn’t just about “does not reflect well” or “discussions about DRS”. DRS is a calculated and premeditated attack on the soul of racing. And what do you advocate? Polite discussion? No. This is not the time for that.

          As long as DRS exists in its current form, ‘discussions’ and nitpicking about overtaking zones and activation areas is, to use a cliche, like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. This is the time for someone like you, Keith, to throw your entire weight behind fighting DRS tooth and nail. Every resource you have should be dedicated to that goal, because as long as DRS exists, and as long as it opens the door for further such things, there is no F1 to be fanatical about.

          This blog is discussing a sport that no longer exists. The only thing that should be left to do is to get it back, not tiptoe around trying to figure out the best way to implement F1’s bullet to the head.

          1. Let’s just wait and see

          2. I loved this rage. Surely we need more of this and some action please, not just brushing it under the carpet with considered comments. The pen is mightier than the sword, but let’s use a big fat permanent one at the very least.

            Problem is, whoever dreams up this DRS garbage has absolutely way too much power and no sense of what racing was and no isn’t because of this farce.

            I too get incensed when DC speaks to Nikki Lauda and thinks that a turbo button is the same thing.. arggghhh! This is why quiet bullet points do not work with this debate… the FIA and nincompoops like DC connected to obliging teams do not listen to us!

    34. Yet more Super Mario antics. I’m certain we are just a few races away from picking up shrooms for more vrooms.

      Crass, artificial drivel. Really no place in F1, or rather what used to be F1.

    35. Can’t believe we’re talking about this. Doesn’t feel like F1.

    36. First, Why limiting the use of DRS? i mean
      this is a track with a long straight but thats not a fault of the team or pilot, i think they should use it all straight if they want, because as spectator i want to see something new happening

    37. I guess that on this track we will see some artificial racing.I still think that the DRS should have been use in the main straight.

    38. This decision is just to favour Red Bulls championship.
      It is a circuit. You can race on it. so use it all for god sake FIA!!!

    39. Since the back straight is actually a pretty decent overtaking spot already that has constantly seen action over the years, why not make the main straight along the start-finish straight as the DRS activation point? I mean, only that will the action spice up…and more overtaking opportunities will be created.

    40. Here is something that DRS could produce (I’m not quite sure how to look at it – it’s racing but a weird kind, anyway):

      Button and Hamilton are tearing down the straight between turns 10 and 11 coming up to the detection zone (which is basically ON turn 11). Button is in front of Hamilton coming up to turn 11 but he knows that Hamilton will have DRS and a long drag down the main straight pretty much guaranteeing a pass. What does he do? Answer – brake early let Hammy slide past into turn 11 (off line) and then pick up his tow through 12/13 and onto the main straight.

      Button will then have:

      a) a better line out of 11 and 12 – therefore better pick up through 12/13
      b) a VERY good close tow on Hamilton
      c) DRS for the straight

      Hamilton would basically be helpless he can’t move to break the tow (as we well know) so all he can do is watch all the way down the straight as Button storms past and into the distance. The only other option would be to let Button past again through 12/13 which just gets silly because everyone starts losing fist fulls of time it would be like a bleeding slow bike race!

    41. Why all this hypocrisy? They introduce DRS to make overtaking easy but they restrict its usage because they don’t want to make it too easy. They should leave drivers free to use it whenever they want. It’s not much different than the gas pedal: use it too much at the wrong place and you fly off track. And let’s stop this thing of handicapping the leading cars: it makes F1 looks like Playstation games, they boost your car to make you catch up with the leaders. Everybody should be able to use DRS, even the leading car.

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