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[beelsebob]

I loled hard . I think DRS is just fine. On some circuits (like Istanbul) it was a bit too overkill but on others haven't done much more than just give the following driver a chance to attack.

Yep, agreed, DRS is working nicely. I don't think we can really pin down the gain in overtaking to any one thing, there's just so many things set up to make it possible
1) Tyres that change throughout the race.
2) Some cars that qualify fast, and others that race fast.
3) The DRS
4) Reintroduction of KERS, and the inconsistency of implementation throughout the field.
5) Having 3-4 of the best F1 drivers we've ever seen all racing in the same era.

Tbh, given that there's 5 reasons listed there, the fact that 29% are DRS based shows that DRS is making a more than fair contribution.

Note – I was not a fan of DRS at the start of the season – I saw it as flawed, and artificial, but it's actually doing a really nice job in my book.

[HampusA]

I agree. There are still some occasions though where the DRS does to good of a job but it´s the first year in use so we can´t really blame FIA now.
I bet next year we will have an even lower percentage of DRS overtakes but will get even more hairy moments and entertainment from it.

[colmmonaghan]

DRS is a Gimmick. It removes skill in order to provide spectacle which I believe is wrong. Give me faster cars and better drivers rather than this 'cop out' of a tool to increase viewing statistics.

[Giblet]

You still have to get to within 1 second of the car in front. There are some new battles created with the DRS. We saw Vettel push too hard and lose a race trying to keep that 1 second gap.

It removes no skill, it simply makes passing possible in this era of aero making it impossible to follow another car closely. I wanted to withhold my judgement on the DRS until the half way point of the year, and since we reached that point at lap 30 of the German GP, I can honestly say I prefer it to fix what is wrong with F1.

We still see passes like we always did without DRS and they are still the difference. Difference is we no longer have Trulli trains and obviously faster cars that if they were in a lesser non-aero series, would be passed easily.

I can understand not liking it however, I just think it was the right bandaid at the right time.

[scuderiafan]

That's 29% too many.

Exactly.

[godlameroso]

You mean 29% were caused directly by DRS. The DRS indirectly led to overtaking this year. Let me explain, say you make it one second behind the leading car, but you fail to overtake on the DRS straight, however you managed to close the gap somewhat, possibly without using KERS, or less than the person you are following. This gives you an advantage of having some KERS so that you can pass somewhere else. In Germany, we saw most passing on the track take place into turn one. Using the DRS on the way to the NGK chicane allowed a car to follow close enough through the final turn, that they could get a good draft, and attempt a pass into turn one.

[Richard]

Actually the statistic would be better described as "happened to occur in the DRS zone". Since the DRS zones tend to be on straights then some of those moves would have also happened without DRS, especially with the Pirelli tyres.

As I see it, DRS does seem to have neutralised the aero disadvantage of driving in the wake of another car. It has allowed cars to get closer (as noted by golameroso) so we have seen more wheel to wheel racing. So one could also say DRS enabled overtaking moves in non-DRS zones.

However evenly matched cars still need to race hard to pass. We saw that in Germany last week as well as other races. If DRS made racing easy then we'd have seen Vettel breeze pass Massa last week. He couldn't so that's a good sign for me.

Personally, I'm glad we no longer have that invisible force field when cars lost performance in the wake of the car in front.