The FIA’s Charlie Whiting has confirmed that there will be two DRS zones at each race – if the circuit layout allows it – starting from Montreal.
The two zones will have to be consecutive, as the wing will be activated at the same point.
In Montreal they will be the last straight and the pit straight.
Whiting said the software that allows the use of two zones first became available for Turkey, but it wasn’t yet proven.
“We only had the software available in Turkey,” he said. “I thought it was too new and I wanted to make sure there were no bugs in it. We didn’t think there was anywhere suitable here, because they have to be consecutive straights, ideally, because it becomes more complicated the further apart they are.
“The first realistic opportunity we felt was Montreal. And in Valencia as currently planned it will be between Turns 10 and 12, and again between 14 and 17.”
Adam Cooper F1 
“The two zones will have to be consecutive, as the wing will be activated at the same point.”
Hmm, that doesn’t make much sense to me. Wouldn’t it be better (in the case of Montreal) to have the first activation zone in the hairpin and the second at the last chicane? That way drivers could battle rather than one getting WAY ahead.
I agree with that, if the overtake works the first time, that driver will use the DRS to get away; had there been two measuring points, it would allow for attempts to re-overtake instead. I guess in the end it really depends on how long those two zones are; if they are short enough that it is unlikely to make a clear pass at the first one, it might work.
Unnecessary, and possibly counter-productive to good racing in Canada. Overtaking’s already abundant, exciting and natural in Montreal! The trailing car will pass on the way into the hairpin then disappear into the distance down that long back straight. A second detection zone would have made it less unfair, but more transparently artificial if cars were swapping places twice a lap as a result.
Valencia, now that’s a different matter.
I misread; I thought the detection zone was just before the run down to the hairpin. My point still stands though. The pass will happen early and the overtaking car will then pull a big gap.
have 2 x DRS zoines and drivers can choose one of them per lap to open the wing….
At the risk of dragging this up again, surely the best thing to do would be to change the design of the *cars*, and within that I am going to (perhaps controversially) include the suggestion of a return to to steel brakes, so that the cars are capable of being overtaken.
Despite the advance of technology in modern F1, this “overtaking” thing was something they managed to achieve in the 1950s-1980s without all these ridiculous “super-mario” type artificial overtaking devices.
It’s not hard to do. Those involved just have to try a bit.
When you say “it’s easy to pass like the old days” you’re talking out of ignorance. The drivers of the last 20 years didn’t lack balls, the problem was the cars and technology were too efficient.
It was in the 1980s that cars gained the ability to brake from top speed and accelerate to top speed in incredibly short distances. They could go from 200kmh down to 80 and back to 200, all within 400 metres. Less time to speed up and slow down means less opportunity to catch people in the corners. And with cars able to accelerate to top speed quickly, the straights are traverse in much less time, killing passing opportunities there as well.
Mandating steel brakes instead of carbon fibre or ceramics would do more to increase passing, as would banning ALL moves to block, not just allowing one.
Cripes, Montreal could hold five DRS zones:
– the main straight before the Senna hairpin
– before the first chicane (cars always stay close out of the hairpin)
– before the third chicane (the left-right second chicane lets cars stay close)
– the casino hairpin
– the final chicane on the long straight
My fear is that the DRS might actually kill passing because cars end up squabbling over space at speed and more crashes happen, rather than outbraking each other while slowing. Or worse, the excess speed into the final chicane might put multiple cars into the “wall of champions” and we’ll be forced to endure laps wasted under the safety car.