In recent years, the FIA has continued to review the length of the DRS zones, in an attempt to find the right balance. Often, the governing body has reduced the size of the areas in which the mobile wing can be used, mainly because it has realised that, on some tracks, overtaking was too easy, making the show on the track artificial. However, this does not apply to all events in the world championship, because on some tracks the opposite effect has been experienced.
For example, in recent years, overtaking has become increasingly difficult at Monza and, even using the mobile wing, there has often been little action on the track, leaving the positions unchanged. Last season, Carlos Sainz with Ferrari managed to keep Max Verstappen’s Red Bull behind him for a long time, while Alex Albon, taking advantage of the excellent top speed of the Williams, managed to precede both McLarens to the finish line.
Precisely for this reason, for this year’s event, the governing body has decided to review the area in which it is possible to activate the mobile wing on the main straight, extending it by 103 meters. While the detection point, i.e. the point where it is established whether the following car is less than a second behind the preceding one, remains unchanged, always set 20 meters after the exit of the Parabolica, on the contrary the activation line has been brought forward by 103 meters.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23, finishes ahead of Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Until last year, in fact, the activation point was located 115 meters after the finish line, which remains in the same place at the start of the pit lane despite the track resurfacing work carried out over the course of the last year, while starting this season it has been brought forward to just 12 meters after the line marking the end of the lap.
The FIA hopes that with this change, the number of overtaking manoeuvres under braking at Turn 1 will increase, especially considering that at Monza the teams use low-downforce and low-profile wings, thus decreasing the effectiveness of the mobile wing. The aim itself is not so much to make the cars overtake on the straight, but to make it easier to try an attacking manoeuvre at the first chicane.
The Italian racetrack also has a second DRS zone, with the detection point set 95 metres before the second Lesmo curve and activation 170 metres after the same curve 7: in this case, however, there was no change compared to last year.
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