Drag Reduction System is Flawed: Hamilton

Published 11/16/2017, 3:31 AM EST

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Lewis Hamilton enjoyed his day of racing at Interlagos on Sunday although the Mercedes driver did not feel particularly challenged by any overtaking manoeuvres. After his botched qualifying on Saturday which saw the world champion crash unexpectedly in Q1, Hamilton was left to conduct a charge through the field after starting from the pit-lane. However, he felt that the Drag Reduction System (DRS) made things too easy.

via Imago

Chasing from behind, he ticked off his opponents one by one, ultimately finishing fourth, but executing passes wasn’t particularly difficult and he explains why. “Honestly, they didn’t really feel like any one of them was particularly special to me,” Hamilton said. “I’m not a big fan of the Drag Reduction System. While I think DRS enables overtaking, it’s like a band-aid for the ultimate flaw in the whole concept of a Formula 1 car: that you can’t follow. They were just about getting up close and using the DRS, which is not like go-karting when you have to get close and then manoeuvre.”

However, Hamilton singled out his pass on Sergio Perez when he passed the Force India driver on the outside of Turn 1. I was quite happy about that but there wasn’t any other highlighted overtaking manoeuvre that I wished that I could have done. This is a race track where it’s difficult to get past, but the delta is actually smaller than in other places. If you look at most of the circuits we go to, the delta to overtake the car in front is usually a second and a half or something like that. You have to be a second and a half faster and that’s a whole tyre compound and a bit. That just shows there is obviously a weakness and a flaw in the cars’ design, and while the cars are fantastic this year, that’s an area we can improve on for the future.”

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Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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