F1 Fanatic

DRS doesn’t take away a driver’s ability to brake.

Did you bother reading my comment fully @Prisoner-monkeys? I also said it’s easily compensated. But the pincher is when the driver doesn’t know that his DRS is gone. ie he activates the DRS along the straight – and slams on the brakes. Wham – the wing doesn’t come down. Imagine if that happened into Les Combes? What then?

@prisoner-monkeys Yes, he will absolutely notice.

But if he’s braking on the limit, as late as he can, for the level of downforce he’d have with DRS CLOSED, that’s too late. The reduced downforce also means reduced braking, ie longer braking distances.

Not to mention how many drivers nowadays trail their braking, further shortening their braking distances.

And modern safety standards are so high that even in the event of a big accident, the driver is highly likely to walk away without injury.

This isn’t really an issue – the people who are jumping on the “DRS is unsafe” bandwagon probably don’t care about the actual safety to teams and drivers. They’re the system’s detractors, and (like I said) are doing or saying whatever they think will get the system banned.

Just like Webber in Monza last year, it was the front wing, I know, but the effect is almost the same you almost have no breaks.

@radical – Well, that was the most unintentionally-hilarious things I’ve read this week.

No, seriously. It was ridiculous. Why on earth would Mercedes want to fire Schumacher? I they really had their heart set of vacating that seat, they would just wait to the end of the year and not renew his contract. There is no immediately-obvious candidate to replace him, his pace in Monaco qualifying showed that he still has what it takes, and if Mercedes are intentionally-sabotaging him, they’re costing themselves valuable World Constructors’ Championship points at a time when they are said to be locking horns with Bernie Ecclestone over the 2013 Concorde Agreement because Ecclestone (supposedly) doesn’t think the team is as important to Formula 1 as other teams are.

I do think there is a case for the FIA to say, until the system is modified and proved to close safe, then Mercedes cannot run DRS.
It must be noted that during a race, the first time the brakes will be applied after the DRS can be opened, is when the car is within one second of the car in front. If the possible overtake doesn’t succede then the following driver with a stuck open DRS will probably still be within 1 sec of the car in front. A very likely outcome is two cars a very differnet speeds, with the following car nowhere to go except into the leading car. Not a good move, when we are going to Valencia, the scene of Mark’s loop-de-loop.

@radical I’ve no idea who wrote that article, it doesn’t seem to have a byline, but it’s complete garbage.