McLaren believe the effectiveness of their DRS could be a crucial aspect in the upcoming Grands Prix of Belgium and Italy, staged on ‘powerhouse’ circuits Spa and Monza which both contain notably long straights.
Introduced at the start of 2011, DRS (Drag Reduction System) allows drivers to open the upper element of the rear wing once in a designated zone of the track, on Lap 3 onwards and when within one second of the car in front. Until now, McLaren had designed their system to focus on a stable performance over a full race distance.
“Now that we’ve got ourselves into a situation where we believe that we are more competitive in qualifying and race pace, we have been able to devote more time to the DRS and our expectations are that our DRS will be competitive at the next few races,” team Managing Director Jonathan Neale explained in the latest Vodafone Phone-In.
“One of the ways in which you get the best DRS is by having to give up a little bit of your optimum wing design. To make the optimum rear wing, you wouldn’t make a DRS-enabled rear wing. It’s not as aero efficient as a conventional rear wing, so when you’re chasing downforce and trying to catch the rest of the field up you have a choice of whether you want to get the downforce and the aero efficiency from the car or whether you are actually after that greater drag reduction.”
Neale went on to explain that most development emphasis since Hungary has been placed on qualifying speed:
“The qualifying pace is where we’ve been falling short and we haven’t put our cars on the right part of the grid. I am pleased to say that, except for the slight blip at the British Grand Prix, the trend has been good, we have been closing in and we’re developing that at a better rate.”
See also:
- Spa DRS zone placed after Eau Rouge
- FIA agrees to Eau Rouge DRS ban
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