Lewis Hamilton hopes changes planned to car design for the 2021 F1 season will reduce the sport’s reliance on the Drag Reduction System to aid overtaking.
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The championship introduced adjustable rear wings in 2011 to let drivers reduce drag on straights when they are within a second of the car ahead. While DRS has increased overtaking, many drivers have criticised it as a gimmick.
Hamilton has previously called DRS a “Band Aid” solution to the problem of F1 cars struggling to follow one another closely. Formula 1 plans to address this directly with new technical regulations for 2021 designed to make it easier for cars to run close together.
Asked whether these changes could allow F1 to remove DRS, Hamilton replied: “There’s nothing I can do about it but I think that it will be a part of Formula 1 for a while, probably.
“I don’t know if they’re going to keep it in 2021. I would imagine they would, but those wings are going to be quite a bit bigger and hopefully will follow better, so maybe there won’t need it then.”
Hamilton also admitted he finds overtakes assisted by DRS less satisfying to execute.
“Some of the overtakes, you’re overtaking halfway down the straight and of course it’s not as exciting,” he said. “You want to be doing it in a corner, launching up the inside of another car.
“But that’s just the way it is. It doesn’t bother me; I still have to put myself in the position to be able to utilise it.”
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