Good race, a lot of action. I think DRS is proving quite good, but they need to tone down the effect. I'd like to see it allow drivers to get alongside, I don't like to see them passing before the braking zone. But other that than, been great so far this year!
You would say overtaking is easy but atleast its not unfair.
It might seem unfair as the pass is going on but the one who was just overtaken atleast has the chance of re-passing the next lap.
I think that on the occasions when it looks too easy to overtake, it's only because of a large performance deficit.
We saw passes into 12 where both cars had exited 10 equally well, both used KERS and the DRS let the chasing car get into the slipstream, and they were level into the braking area. Those sorts of passes/duels would probably not have happened last year.
Last year we generally saw passes only when there was a fairly large performance difference between the 2 cars. Those passes do now happen much more easily. It would be nearly impossible for Petrov to defend as he did in Abu Dhabi, for instance.
It's better in general, imo, the performance difference required for there to be a passing chance is now much much less, but the trade-off is that it becomes an inevitability whenever the performance difference is the least bit significant.
Reduce its effect to bring the contest back to the fast-car vs. underdog duels, and the chances of two equally matched cars having a "scrap" are reduced hugely. I know which I'd prefer to see.
I agree, but I still don't like to see the car behind have such a straight line advantage that they've passed before they reach the braking zone. I'm not saying do away with the DRS advantage, but just tone it down a bit so that the driver behind can still get alongside and then make them fight it out under braking.
In my mind DRS was introduced to solve the problem of a trailing car that's faster being unable to pass a slower car due to not being able to follow in the slipstream. At the moment DRS seems like a big red 'overtake' button. I would prefer to see its effectiveness reduced to purely allow the driver behind to get into a position to attempt a pass, instead of at the moment where it seems to guarantee one.
But frankly, these are small tweaks to the system I'm suggesting. I was sceptical of DRS back at the start of the year, but I think it's been working out very well.
I don't think it does guarantee a pass. We saw several side-by-sides into turn 12 which did not always result in a successfully completed pass.
These duels were typically between cars that were running similar laptimes, or rather, had similar ultimate pace potential. You hardly ever got those scraps before and DRS really encourages it.
Where it does fall down, as I said before, is that it pretty much guarantees the a relatively easy pass when the chasing car has some performance advantage. They get out of the previous corner better, and where before they might have closed in with the slipstream and had a chance, now there's no defending against it because, inside or outside, they could be miles past before they get anywhere near the braking zone.
I think we'll just have to accept it, unless they introduce an extra condition, that if the car in front's previous lap was more than 5 tenths slower than your own, you don't get the DRS, no matter how close you are
Are they allowed to use it whilst lapping cars? I'm sure I saw Vettel's popping open whilst lapping the Virgin and it surprised me, although I do not know the rule.
That was a good race, nice battle between the team mates of Mclaren and Renault.
Kobayashi was robbed of a really good finish with the puncture he got when overtaking Buemi, yet he still managed 10th from starting 23rd!
Not only that but he passed like 8 cars on the first stint with hard tyres, Webber could only pass one last race and that was done on the first 3 corners of the race.
I think Vettel has enough buffer over Webber now to cover him, Unless someone challenges Red Bull now the title looks to be his.
. I think that in next races it will be interesting racing Red Bull with Ferrari (and maybe McLaren).
