Quote:
Originally Posted by BTCC frog
I watched the Verstappen/Russell without DRS and thought that the lack of DRS improved the racing, as instead of a battle that lasted one lap before Verstappen breezed past on the straight we had a battle that lasted multiple laps with Verstappen stuck behind Russell but unable to get by.
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Nice post, but to the point above.
I agree it was interesting to watch. But I also think part of why it was interesting is that Verstappen "knew" he should have been able to get past. And that if DRS was working he would have been more confident in making a pass work. I ended up watching that entire battle from Verstappen's onboard. So he was making multiple attempts in the hopes that DRS would work. At other time I think he was probably working to recharge battery, manage tire, etc. But... if there were no DRS available. I tend to think that the pass would have been difficult if not impossible unless George made a mistake. And if that was the situation, why would Verstappen have continued to try and try and burn up his tires in a futile attempt? I don't think he would have. We would NOT have seen multiple laps of attempts. He would have done (much earlier) what he eventually did and that was to pit to try to run without being stuck behind him.
My point is that, I don't think we can view that specific battle as an example of what a battle in a world without DRS would look like. I think a core question is... Is that type of situation in which Max looked likely to really not be able to overtake is what we want? Granted, it was top drivers is maybe the top three cars (assuming Mercedes is the new #3 in the pecking order). So maybe that is exactly what should have happened (Max could not pass)? I suspect that if that was the answer to the larger F1 audience on the whole, they would not agree. They would argue that Max was faster and there should have been a way to get around short of George making a mistake. I am not saying one way or another that I agree, but I suspect that people (on average) would not be happy if DRS went away tomorrow.
Richard