The Circuit of the Americas will feature a single DRS zone on its longest straight, the FIA has confirmed.
The activation zone is expected to be positioned 650m before the turn 12 hairpin for the first Grand Prix at the circuit in Austin, Texas.
The last two races in Abu Dhabi and India used two DRS zones.
BasCB (@bascb)
13th November 2012, 14:22
I must say its completely beyond me why we would need a DRS zone on a new track. Why oh why couldn’t they have done without for at least the first race?
sorin (@)
13th November 2012, 14:52
To not be bored, I guess.
DaveD (@daved)
13th November 2012, 15:59
Agreed. I’m not sure which is causing more passing but between the DRS and the tyres, there is a lot of action in F1 again.
matt90 (@matt90)
13th November 2012, 17:03
*between the regulations and the tyres.
@HoHum (@hohum)
13th November 2012, 20:33
Got to give Alonso a chance.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
14th November 2012, 19:49
@bascb Dangerous territory I think though. Some circuits are better suited to cars than others so I think if you started picking and choosing which circuits had DRS you might be (unwillingly or unknowingly) giving the guy on pole position an advantage he wouldn’t have elsewhere. Seems a little far-fetched I admit, but not outside the realms of possibility.
GeeMac (@geemac)
13th November 2012, 14:33
Judging from the length of that back straight a car with a half decent tow should be able to make a pass into turn 12, why do they need DRS too? Why not have a DRS zone on the pit straight instead to create a second overtaking opportunity?
sorin (@)
13th November 2012, 15:05
Ok, so do you realise(i do, from the layout of circuit) that only on the big straight line you can overtake? And there if you don’t have drs, is very hard to do it.
bag0 (@bag0)
13th November 2012, 16:21
@sorin
Except, you can overtake into T1, T12, T19, if the car ahead makes a mistake, almost anywhere, if the tyres go off, T2 & T7 are good places to make the pass. @geemac is right, if the DRS zone is a must have, then it should be on the pit straight.
Also a pass into T12 does not depend on the DRS, just the exit of T11. If the car behind messes up T11 exit it will be too late for the DRS, but if he gets at least as good exit as the car in front, it should get a tow for almost a Km, allowing him either to pass or to line up. DRS will only help to make the pass BEFORE T12, whitch is not that interesting in my view.
sorin (@)
13th November 2012, 16:47
You’re far too optimistics. You will see that it will be hard to overtake on that big straight line with drs.
GeeMac (@geemac)
14th November 2012, 5:00
Right, so you are saying under normal racing conditions that a car which got a got run on another out of turn 11 would not, without DRS, be able to make an overtake into Turn 12? Sorry, that is not right. With DRS they will be completing their overtake a couple of hundred meters before turn 12.
KaIIe (@kaiie)
13th November 2012, 14:44
This pretty much guarantees that (if Pirelli’s tyre choice turns out to be too conservative) we don’t see overtaking anywhere else.
Gridl0k
13th November 2012, 15:41
Another 1 stop race to retirement/the podium for the pole-sitter ahead.
a4p (@a4p)
13th November 2012, 16:06
A single DRS zone? That looks like a complete mess to me.
Two DRS zones (with a shorter one on the final straight) would have been very reasonable, since the first sector is so twisty that even a slightly inferior car (for mere aerodynamic and technical reasons) could never reach the detection point within a second from the leading one. I expect a Vettel win, if not a super-easy RBR 1-2 finish.
DC (@dujedcv)
13th November 2012, 16:31
How about no DRS. Yeee-haw
NemesisRacing (@)
13th November 2012, 18:11
I remember a legend saying “if you no longer go for a gap that exist, you are no longer a racing driver”. These days a driver could say “I don’t need to go for the gap, I just need to wait for the next DRS zone”. And this is what I’m sure have happened so many times in the last two years.
I believe we are slowly losing the essence of Formula1, the pure essence of motor racing, in the name of the “show”. And I don’t want to look like a nostalgic of the old days, but I do not like many things of this modern F1… and I’m just 20 years old…
Kimi4WDC
13th November 2012, 22:50
These days a driver say “If I got for a gap as a legend used to do, I’ll end up suspended for the rest of the season.”
fix it for you :)
frood19 (@frood19)
14th November 2012, 9:03
@Kimi4WDC utter rubbish! what “legends” are you talking about? senna, schumacher? what about the dozens of world champions and grand prix winners who drove with precision and fairness.
erix
14th November 2012, 14:00
Yes, Schumacher got black flag, race ban, and disqualification. Senna, do we want to talk about what happened to him?
Pete_E
13th November 2012, 18:39
have to say that im really starting to turn against drs having been a supporter of the system initially.
i’ve attended every race at montreal since 1989 & i’ve always sat in the grandstands at the casino hairpin & since drs was introduced there has been a lot less action there than there used to be. something i noticed in 2011 & 2012 is that cars will have a great run into the hairpin & pull out as if atempting a pass, however they will then slow down to ensure there behind at the drs detection line & the drs is so powerfull at montreal that you then get an easy pass down the straight where there are no grandstands so none of the fans at the track get to see it.
so from that point of view drs has made the races at montreal a lot less interesting to watch from the grandstands as all of the action/passing happens where you can’t see it.
outside of that im really getting fedup of watching uncontested & easy passing happening half way down straights, i want to see some hard fought racing into the corners with drivers really having to work to earn an overtake, we just dont see this sort of overtake anymore. overtaking used to be a core skill, a real work of art to force the issue & pull off an exciting & memorable pass. now you just push a button & get an easy & rather unexciting pass on a straight.
as i say i was initially a supporter of drs as i thought more overtaking would be good, however having seen drs in action & seen the sort of racing/overtaking its produced (and how it harmed my enjoyment sitting trackside at montreal) i think its time to see it banned.
frood19 (@frood19)
14th November 2012, 9:05
i totally agree with this. i fully expected them not to bother with DRS at montreal in 2011, but they had 2 (!) zones instead. then, after the motorway-style passes we saw in 2011, i fully expected (naively) that they would ditch it for 2012. how silly of me to expect the FIA to learn from experience.
canada 2012 was one of the least interesting races i’ve seen for some time – so predictable.
Troy Longstaff (@troylongstaff)
13th November 2012, 20:17
+1. I reckon it makes the passes too easy for the drivers, and I want to see again a driver lunge up the inside in a last-gasp effort, which makes the pass better to watch. Ban DRS and put more of an emphasis on KERS, imo. Pull your head out of the sand, FIA!
Matty No 2 (@mattynotwo)
13th November 2012, 20:35
After looking at the map thair, I’m actually a little surprised that the FIA did’nt add a second DRS zone on the start finish straight.
A double dose of DRS action would be great on F1’s return to the USA, i think.
Kriz (@krizz)
13th November 2012, 22:06
They say they want to replicate the 130R and turn 8 from the Istanbul circuit?? I don’t think those replica’s won’t show the same thrill. The reason why? If you look at the approaches to these turns you can see that they’re all very tight. The approaches to these turns consist of (slow) turns. So, low speed entry will result in low mid-corner speed, one might say. If you look at turn Eight at Istanbul or the 130R At Suzuka, they’re all preceded by a fast section, especially the 130R. So, the approach to the corner is faster, so the more daring it’ll be to go through the corner (‘trying not to crash out of the turn at high speed instead of spinning around in the turn because the driver stepped on the throttle a little bit too early…’)
roger_e
13th November 2012, 22:16
something to consider regarding pirelli & drs is that according to polling done by speed channel over here in the us, most american viewers have a negative view of both.
back in july speed did a poll & 84% said the tyres were making f1 racing too artificial & 79% said the drs was too much of a gimmick & made passing too easy.
maybe this is why pirelli have gone conservative & why there’s only 1 drs zone when there could have been 2.
91jb12 (@91jb12)
13th November 2012, 22:32
I’d have DRS on the run through the left kink into the hairpin at the bottom of the track. Activate it as soon as you exit the 90 left and as long as that left kink is easy flat (looks like it should be), then have it there.
Why the insist on having DRS zones on normal overtaking places I don’t understand
Tyler (@tdog)
14th November 2012, 6:21
ok, so the consensus of F1F readers is that there should be no DRS zone, or one DRS zone exactly where it is, or they should move it, or there should be two DRS zones. Can’t imagine why the FIA can’t get it right!