14/09/2018
NEWS STORY
While the F1 concept revealed to fans today might be intended to make hearts beat that little bit faster, encourage youngsters to seek a career in engineering and kids to stick posters on their walls, the sport' technical boss, Ross Brawn, admitted that one of the most loathed and artificial devices introduced to the sport in recent years might still remain.
Like fans and drivers, Ross Brawn has previously admitted that he dislikes the artificial 'racing' that DRS provides, yet as the sport continues to seek a solution to its overtaking - or lack of it - problem he has revealed that it may yet be part of the package despite the various regulation changes under consideration.
"I think we can keep that in our pocket," he told reporters in Singapore. "I'd like to think we could reach a stage where DRS doesn't become so critical. But it is a very easy thing to have or not have if we find the cars are able to battle with each other.
"Overtaking is the culmination of course, but having a great battle is critical, and where you have cars where they cannot follow each other consistently because the tyres degrade and because of the loss of performance, then you don't have such great battles. You can have a great battle where the guy who is leading still leads at the end, but you've had a great battle.
"We have made an effort to make sure we distinguish the difference between overtaking and racing," he insisted. "Often racing will culminate in overtaking. At Monza I saw some statistics the other day and about half the overtakes were with DRS, and half were without. So there was plenty of action, but it is a unique track in that respect. We need more tracks where the cars can do battle."
This, at a time the sport's owners are seeing more street tracks.
Check out our Friday gallery from Singapore, here.