FIA looking at more DRS zones at other F1 tracks – Whiting

Formula 1 race director Charlie Whiting has hinted that new additional DRS zones may be introduced at other circuits for 2018 having created a third zone at Albert Park for the Australian Grand Prix.

A third Drag Reduction System zone was installed between Turns 12 and 13 at the Albert Park circuit in which drivers can make use of the DRS in the rear wing of their cars to gain a straight line speed advantage and overtake with greater ease.

The new zone was met by a mixed reception on how successful it would be to increase overtaking but after the Australian Grand Prix produced very few overtakes it supported a number of drivers’ predictions the new zone would be too short and ineffective.

Speaking before the 2018 F1 opening race, Whiting said regardless of its success it was worth a trial with the Melbourne track considered the second hardest circuit to overtake at on the race calendar, only ahead of Monaco, and similar experiments would be considered at other races.

“We are looking at optimising what can be done with the DRS zones,” Whiting said. “This is not an ideal circuit for that [overtaking], with the two DRS zones that we have that are not particularly effective.

“We thought as there is an opportunity to do something on that straight between Turns 12 and 13 and if a driver can get a little closer he may get another detection at Turn 14 and use it down the start straight.

“It was to offer a little something else here but we will try to do something more effective at other tracks where there is more opportunity to try to do that.”

The third DRS zone was added to the regular zones on the start/finish straight and between Turn 2 and Turn 3. Whiting accepts F1 is facing an ongoing battle with the overtaking problem due to the current generation of cars which makes it difficult to follow other cars closely due to the turbulent air which has made it harder to overtake.