In the era around the turn of the millennium, the ‘dirty air’ problem was so great, teams would often pit a chasing car to try and jump ahead when their leading rival stopped, which significantly reduced on-track passing. This is the phenomenon of air that has already been pushed around by one car landing on the front end of a car following behind, leading to unpredictable handling and increased tyre wear due to increased car sliding.
Since wing-produced aerodynamics became an integral part of F1 car performance in late 1960s this has had a direct effect on how closely the cars are able to follow each other.īut as engine parity in the era before 2014 meant teams could rarely rely on a major grunt advantage to start ahead of or overcome a rival car, the smaller performance gaps placed a greater emphasis on the ‘dirty air’ effect in racing. While that is an aim of F1’s sporting bosses in the coming years, the device’s continuing usage remains disputed. However, as the latest generation of F1 cars have been designed to allow drivers to follow more closely with a reduced ‘dirty air’ effect, many people had hoped this would lead to DRS being dropped.
While there have been plenty of occasions where its power has been deemed to be too great and so passes have occurred well before braking zones on straights, the tool is generally aimed at assisting overtaking when drivers would otherwise be stuck in dirty, turbulent air. Juan Pablo Montoya – the former F1 driver and double Indianapolis 500 winner famed for his bolshy passes in the era that predated DRS – compared the device to “giving Picasso Photoshop”.īut DRS is not a simple ‘overtake button’ that automatically means getting past the car in front. Therefore, it is often claimed that this takes away from the skill of pulling off a challenging overtaking manoeuvre.
0 kommentar(er)
