Teams to discuss DRS following Ericsson's crash

  • Published on 06 Sep 2018 12:24
  • comments 7
  • By: Fergal Walsh

Formula 1's race director Charlie Whiting has confirmed that F1's Technical Working Group will discuss the Drag Reduction System this week following Marcus Ericcson's monster crash during free practice two at Monza last weekend.

The DRS flap failed to close as the Swede braked into Turn 1, which caused his Sauber to swerve into the barriers. The car then was flipped over multiple times, but Ericsson walked away from the incident and was cleared to drive for the remainder of the weekend.

Ericsson's teammate Charles Leclerc and Renault's Nico Hulkenberg also had DRS problems throughout the weekend, while Kimi Raikkonen was forced to retire from the Belgian Grand Prix two weeks ago when his rear wing wouldn't close.

"We’ve got a technical working group meeting on Thursday, and we’re going to discuss that,” Whiting told Autosport. “We checked a lot of DRS systems on the cars after qualifying, to make sure that none of them could do what the Sauber’s did.

“Theirs effectively had a stop but the stop was easy to override, and it could go over the centre and when it closed – when the driver brakes or goes off the throttle above a certain threshold – it’s slow to close because it has gone over the centre. They [Sauber] put these stops in it to make sure it couldn’t happen again.”

Replies (7)

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  • Mind, it hasnt really been an all that problematic feature, has it? Though its been kinda bad when it has failed.

    • + 0
    • Sep 6 2018 - 17:07
  • xoya

    Posts: 583

    They should just scrap driving. Make them play F1 manager. It's much much safer. :)

    • + 0
    • Sep 6 2018 - 17:28
  • DRS will stay. Why? Because teams like Mercedes need a safe and risk free way to overtake other cars. F1 is not about racing, it's about advertising. Any damage to a car looks bad.

    • + 0
    • Sep 6 2018 - 18:19
    • TINFOIL HATS FOR SALE! TINFOIL HATS FOR SALE!

      • + 0
      • Sep 6 2018 - 20:10
    • LOW IQ! LOW IQ!

      • + 0
      • Sep 6 2018 - 22:17
  • Freguz

    Posts: 160

    DRS is somewhat artificial and feels like workaround for the real problem, which is downforce.

    Remove that ugly black floor and simplify the rear rear wing, and rely more on plain mechanical grip, and you will see wheel to wheel fighting again. The cars will be slower in corners yes, but does it really matter?

    • + 0
    • Sep 6 2018 - 23:26
    • Major Tom

      Posts: 152

      I would tend to agree with you - however lap times would increase substantially which would seem to be unacceptable to most people.

      • + 0
      • Sep 9 2018 - 16:59

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