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Originally Posted by chillibowl
anyways back on topic, along the lines of what could actually be done with active aero, as number4 suggested, would DRS be less ridiculous if its use was allowed at any point on the track?
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IMHO, yes (less ridiculous). It would just be straight up active aero at that point. But your next question get to the heart of the problem with that idea...
Quote:
Originally Posted by chillibowl
would both the lead and following driver both using it at the same time just cancel each other out in effect?
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I think yes... as it seems to be that way now if you have a train of cars all within DRS activation of each other. Only the person at the front who is out of range of whoever is in front of him is at an disadvantage. For everyone else, it seems DRS has no real impact.
I personally think the core of why it seems "manufactured" is the fact that it is designed to give one car an advantage over another in a way that the "looser" has really done nothing wrong. The leader can't deploy, the follower can. The problem is... that is exactly why it works.
But it is at it's core trying to bring back the natural concept of "slipstreaming". Which based upon my argument above, is "not fair" (I think true slipstreaming is just fine!) Real slipstreaming is a more natural scenario vs. an artificial version via DRS. I also wonder if we have selective memory on some aspects of when and why slipstreaming works. It still works in some sports such as oval racing (which I really don't follow). I expect that is because you are able to follow a car for a much longer period of time and eventually make it work. While the straights in F1 have gotten shorter over time, so you have to have a huge advantage to make it work in a shorter distance (i.e. DRS).
This is very much before my time as an F1 fan, but today something like the Kimmel straight at Spa is very long, but just look at the older 14-15KM long Spa circuit. Very long straights in which I suspect real slipstreaming (even with today's cars minus DRS) could take place. I have copied some text from the Spa wikipedia page about racing at the older circuit with a few bold highlights from myself...
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Spa was the fastest road circuit in Europe at the time, and it had a nasty reputation for being dangerous and very fast- it was a circuit known to be one for the brave, and most drivers were frightened of it. The old Spa circuit was unique in that speeds were consistently high with hardly any let-up at all for 3–4 minutes. This made it an extraordinarily difficult mental challenge, because most of the corners were taken at 180+ mph and were not quite flat- every corner was as important as the one before it. If a driver lifted just that little bit more, then whole seconds, not tenths- would be lost. Even the slightest error of any kind was punished very harshly in more ways than one. But this reality also worked inversely- huge advantages could be gained if a driver came out of a corner slightly faster.
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Back to active aero... I am a fan of the concept, but only if "done right", which is hard to do. Remember the driver adjustable front wing stuff from 2009 (pre DRS) that really didn't seem to do much and was eventually abandoned?
Richard