Measure to be introduced on safety grounds
Friday 16 November 2012 10:55, UK
The FIA's Race Director Charlie Whiting has confirmed that, as of next season, the governing body is to limit the use of DRS during practice and qualifying to just the official zones.
Drag reduction systems - a driver-operated flap in the car's rear wing that reduces both drag and downforce in order to boost speed - were introduced in 2011 by the FIA as a means to improve overtaking. "The whole point of the DRS was to ensure that we improve overtaking in the race. That's the sole and stated reason for it," Whiting added. "No-one really understood how effective it would be. In fact, most of the engineers told us it would be similar in effect to KERS - so two, three, maybe four-tenths per lap. "That clearly hasn't been the case. You can see now, depending on the circuit, it can be anywhere between one and one-and-a-half seconds benefit in qualifying. So it's massive in some cases."
