F1 Fanatic

I re-watched the second half of the Canadian GP today, and I’ve read through the threads on the Mercedes post race report, and the debates on twitter recently about whether DRS is artificial, and too easy, and whether the leading driver is getting mugged, or robbed by it. I have a couple of questions I came to my own conclusions about that I’d be interested to hear alternative opinions on.

Driver A and Driver B
A is ahead, but B is 2 seconds a lap faster. Ignore what the cause is of that speed difference – we don’t care if it’s tyres, weight, skill, aero, anything, it’s not relevant. B is right behind A as they leave a slow corner leading onto a long straight.

What do you think should happen in this scenario?

Rule A and Rule B
Overtaking is unreliable and unpredictable, sometimes too much, sometimes too little. The sport institutes two rules.
Rule A: A free-for all. No restrictions on weaving on the straight or moving in the braking zones. These are the best drivers in the world, let them get on with it.
Rule B: A mandated passing zone. You can only pass in that zone, and if you don’t make it, you have to wait til the next lap. But you get to turn off your restrictions on revs, diffs, suspension and wings to do it.

So all the sport’s current artificial restrictions on what you’re not allowed to do with overtaking are lifted, but there’s a different artificial restriction put in place. Would it work?

Like Andrew said, the driver behind would already benefit from the DRS because of the Slipstream. It could also be a battle of who presses the Button first too, or who breaks later. Who I think I’d prefer.

Like you said a few days ago, Hairs, DRS is not meant to act as a weapon where the defending driver actually has no defence, but simply as an ‘equaliser’ to give a faster car an opportunity to pass to begin with.

Like I say, I don’t want to get into arguments about the technology, or the aero, or the differences in the chassis on the first point. DRS doesn’t exist in this scenario, neither does KERS or anything else. Assume that the cars are wooden blocks, if you like, or they’re all the same spec.

I’m only interested in what you expect to happen in that scenario.

I read numerous comments since last week where people seemed to think that B should have been held up behind A until he made a mistake, or saw fit to let the other guy past. That argument made no sense at all to me.