Fernando Alonso has backed the permanent inclusion of DRS in F1, saying its importance in the sport cannot be understated.
F1 cars have the advanced Drag Reduction System (DRS). Its purpose is to provide drivers with a great overtaking method when they get within one second of a car in front of them.
Using DRS opens a flap on the car’s rear wing and gives it greater straight-line speed. It has provided fans with more overtakes, but it has also been criticised for being a little too easy to use.
However, the two-time world champion insisted that the sport needs DRS. Alonso backed the permanent inclusion of DRS in F1, and said that without it, F1 wouldn’t be that great a spectacle.
As quoted by motorsport.com, when asked if DRS should be done away with in the new regulation season, Alonso said, “I don’t think so, I think we’ll always need it in Formula 1.
“I know that it provides some artificial overtaking sometimes at different circuits. But if we look back, when we didn’t have DRS, the races were much more boring. It was much more difficult to overtake.
“Formula 1 is not like other categories. I think in F1, you’re always struggling to follow closely enough because of the nature of the aerodynamics and how clever all the teams will always be to provide performance.
“So DRS is going to be (a) useful tool, I think, even for the future.”
New dawn
Alonso also gave his thoughts on F1’s V6 era, and said that although the gap between Mercedes and the rest of the field was huge, the sport adapted and evolved.
“The Mercedes domination was brutal, in the first three or four years of the V6,” he continued.
“And then, from 2017, when Formula 1 introduced the wider tyre and the bigger cars, I think that was a step backwards in terms of racing and being able to follow cars closer.
“We were missing a couple of things (compared to the past), and F1 did learn from these experiences, and I think we’ll have a better 2022 championship,” he concluded.
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