In recent years, once the economics of F1 actually kicked in, the sport has become a brutal battleground. Where once mostly glory and legacy were on the line, now, millions of dollars have also come into the mix. With two commercial giants such as Red Bull and Mercedes, once their paths met on track, acrimony was bound to develop. With the Bulls now clearly winning this battle of the Goliaths, the Silver Arrows are apparently doing everything in their power to pull the Milton-Keynes-based outfit back. And this hasn’t gone down too well with them either.

During the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the FIA and F1 decided to shorten the DRS zone at the 2km main straight. This was then again administered during the Miami GP yesterday, at the Miami International Autodrome. While this has reduced the effectiveness of DRS for all the teams, Red Bull smells something sinister going on in the Mercedes garage.

Helmut Marko snubs Mercedes while accusing them of manipulation

This season, the DRS on Red Bull has been supremely effective. Naturally, the Bulls are running away with all the accolades. However, with this new DRS rule tweak, team advisor Helmut Marko has openly accused Mercedes of manipulating the sport’s sanctity.

He told Motorsport Magazin, “Overtaking has always been difficult. If the DRS zone is shortened, you know why. It’s about slowing us down! We have to stop intervening in such a manipulative way” [translated via Google Translate]

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“And who’s upset? Mercedes! It’s unbelievable. They had such a superior engine for years and were way further ahead than we are. If you put on track an F1 that’s been a flop two years in a row, you should focus on that, not the others.” 

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But while Marko believes Mercedes to be playing a hand in this regulation change, Lewis Hamilton himself isn’t too pleased about it.

Lewis Hamilton blasts new DRS rule

Baku has been one of the most highly anticipated races on the F1 calendar for a while now. However, this time around, the race was dull to say the least. 7x champion, Hamilton though, he pins the blame squarely on the shortened DRS zone into turn 1.

He was quoted by Autosport as saying, “Nothing went wrong but I just wanted more power. A driver always wants more power. And I think ultimately they shortened the DRS this year down the straight, I don’t quite know why they did that. We’ve always had great racing where the DRS was. By the time you switched the DRS on, it was too late.”

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Is shortening the DRS zones really the answer to Red Bull’s dominance?