The Formula 1 drivers at the race in Azerbaijan found it rather unfortunate that the DRS zone at the start/finish point in Baku was shortened by 100 meters this year. Both the sprint and the race itself were not very spectacular and lacked overtaking maneuvers compared to the previous editions.
The drivers had already expressed their concerns in the briefing with race director Niels Wittich on Friday, but nothing was changed for the rest of the weekend, and there was also no adjustment after the sprint with little overtaking.
“I don’t know why they did it,” says Lewis Hamilton of the shortening of the DRS zone. “We always had great racing here with DRS, but if you activated DRS here now, it was too late. Were there a lot of overtaking maneuvers today? No? There you have it.”
Alexander Albon is also of the opinion that the activation point should have stayed in its old place: “You could see that there weren’t many overtaking maneuvers. The DRS zone was too short,” says the Williams driver. “Last year showed that it wasn’t actually a bad place, but they took 100 meters away. You could actually make it 100 meters longer.”
The FIA reacted by shortening the time because they felt that overtaking with the new ground effect cars was too easy. However, the drivers disagree: Due to the development, it is now more difficult to follow each other again, and the slipstream is no longer as effective as before. “That’s why you see these DRS trains,” says Albon.
McLaren: Overtaking was ‘impossible’
Lando Norris was one of the victims of the shorter DRS zone and was unable to get past Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg for a long time, even though he had significantly fresher tires than the other two, who only made their mandatory pit stop on hard tires shortly before the end.
“With our speed on the straights, overtaking is basically impossible – at least as short as the DRS zone is now,” says the McLaren driver. “I did my best to keep up with the cars in front of me. I pushed the tires too hard because we’re not on the same level.”
When asked if the shorter DRS zone made sense, he replies: “No. All the drivers questioned that in the driver briefing.”
His team boss Andrea Stella agrees that the zone could have been a little longer, preventing some maneuvers when braking: “When you’re five or ten meters closer, you can try to attack, which is something for us in the race today was impossible. We would have welcomed that,” he says.
“I think the FIA and Formula 1 need to take a close look at the fact that this year seems to have been more difficult to overtake in general, possibly not only because of the DRS, but also because of a little less slipstream effect. “The pull effect behind the car in front seems to be there to be a little lower than usual,” says Stella.
Alpine trusts the FIA
Alpine sports director Alan Permane, on the other hand, defends the FIA, even if he has to admit that his two drivers also had problems overtaking competitors in the race.
“You have to be very careful when you talk about things like this and who you ask,” he says. “Because when you’re at the front you don’t want DRS zones. And when you have a car that’s faster in the race than in qualifying, you want longer DRS zones.”
“It is therefore best if you leave these things to the FIA to judge it on the basis of their data. And of course that is exactly what happens,” said Permane. “They have a performance department that looks at things. I think they looked back over the last year and felt that overtaking was a bit too easy and that’s why they shortened it.”