Ahead of this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc has taken aim at the FIA for having once again shortened the main DRS zone, just a week after the most uneventful race of the season.
The 2.2km main straight at the Baku City Circuit last weekend offered little action, due to the DRS activation zone having been shortened by 100 metres.
As a result, overtaking was near impossible at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with the drivers having not been able to follow one another closely enough before activating their DRS.
It meant DRS trains were present throughout the field, something which is likely going to happen again on Sunday at the Miami International Autodrome.
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For this weekend, the FIA have shortened both DRS zones, with the second of the two having been shortened by 75 metres on the exit of Turn 16.
Leclerc isn’t a fan of the DRS zones being shortened and has called for the FIA to stop making the changes, given that the cars aren’t good enough to “have less DRS”.
“I don’t think it’s the right direction,” Leclerc said in the drivers’ press conference on Thursday, as reported by Autosport.
“With the cars we have at the moment it’s still quite difficult to follow. It’s better than the previous generation cars, but still not good enough to actually have less DRS. So hopefully in the future races we won’t shorten [the DRS zones]”
Reigning World Champion Max Verstappen hasn’t suffered from a DRS train at all this season so far, with Red Bull’s RB19 being the only car seemingly capable of overtaking down a main straight, due to their phenomenal top speed.
The Dutchman has actually called for DRS to be completely removed in the past; however, even he’s recognised ahead of this weekend that there are issues to be solved with the current generation of cars.
Verstappen believes the lack of action throughout the grid is down to following being more difficult and the DRS zones being shortened, causing a “bit of a DRS train”.
“I would prefer of course that we could race without DRS but that’s not possible,” Verstappen said, as reported by PlanetF1.com.
“I think for us, it’s a little bit different.
“If the car is faster, let’s say when you have to come through the field from the back, it doesn’t really matter how long the zone is, you will get the car ahead.
“But when the pace is one or two tenths [difference], you could see that in Baku, I think once you’re in a bit of a DRS train, there’s no chance. The DRS zone is just not big enough to have a run.
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“So what [causes] that? Is the DRS zone too short? Or the cars are not good enough to follow closely? I think it’s a bit of a combination of both.
“The cars are probably too heavy, they’re too stiff, so you can’t really run a kerb to try and find a bit of a different line. Everyone is driving more or less the same line nowadays because of just how the cars work and how stiff the suspension is.
“Probably now with people finding more and more downforce in the cars, it probably becomes a bit harder to follow as well.”