2013 Belgian GP - Spa

[godlameroso]

Where are the DRS zones for this race? I know one is after Eau Rouge, is the other one down the pit straight?

[SectorOne]

They really should remove the one after Eau Rouge. There has never been a shortage of overtakes there before.
Better to have a detection zone out of Stavelot.

Here´s from F1.com,

[raceman]

DRS after Eau Rouge is fine, but the one on the start/finish straight is really foolish. Such a short DRS?? Cars will take almost 30% of that DRS span just to get up to speed and then when the following car would pass; near the braking point? Braking point overtaking can be done without DRS in normal racing without DRS.

More logical would be to put DRS detection point #2 at the end of second sector and DRS activation in the final and third sector. That would be a long road for DRS to show it's strengths properly and efficiently!

[raymondu999]

IMO the best places would have been betwene Blanchimont and the chicane, then the chicane to La Source. Would certainly help make some cutback maneuvers into La Source

[Mika1]

The second DRS zone is useless, easy to defend.

[raymondu999]

The second DRS zone is useless, easy to defend.

That's the point - if you defend into La Source, then it will kill your exit from La Source.

I remember that's exactly what Vettel did to Kubica in 2010. He suckered Kubica into defending into La Source, then just massacred the Lotus (nee Renault) on the exit via cutback

[Mika1]

The second DRS zone is useless, easy to defend.

That's the point - if you defend into La Source, then it will kill your exit from La Source.

I remember that's exactly what Vettel did to Kubica in 2010. He suckered Kubica into defending into La Source, then just massacred the Lotus (nee Renault) on the exit via cutback

Possible, but I have seen enough moves not working into La Source. Furthermore the start/finish straight is too short, if you have a good exit, it's hard to overtake.

[SiLo]

The one from Eau Rouge is just silly, it's too long and makes it so easy to overtake. Expect to see Kimi making overtakes here, he is the mast of the exit from Eau Rouge to overtake on Kemmel.

[beelsebob]

The one from Eau Rouge is just silly, it's too long and makes it so easy to overtake.

Actually, quite the reverse, it's silly for exactly the opposite reason. The teams were already bumping off the Rev limiter down Kemmel. There's no other sane way to set up. Adding DRS down kemmel does nothing to help overtaking because it doesn't increase top speeds at all. To my mind the two DRS zones should be the start finish straight, and into the bus stop.

DRD benefits are proportional, not to how amount of straights, nor the time you would have opened DRS in years past.

Hear ye, hear ye-
The DRD benefit, on each track layout, is proportional to the percentage of time you spend around a lap at a speed faster than the trigger speed. And the trigger speed has to be set just above your highest grip-limited speed.

So, first you have to determine your trigger speed, aka "highest grip-limited speed." The higher this speed is, then advantage goes down - otherwise you'd just be making yourself spin. Once you know that number, then you need to look at how long you're at speeds higher than said trigger speed, because the device only helps you while:

Trigger speed < x < terminal velocity

Where x is your car speed. In other words, the DRD advantage is proportional to the amount of time spent between your trigger and your terminal speeds

Thank god, someone else understands! I thought I was going insane.

[turbof1]

Well, you still are insane, but I'll get back later on that .

Here's an idea: why not just reverse the safety concerns and allow DRS on eau rouge? I always found it quite excegerated that they disallowed that. Back in 2010 they did essentially the same with just one hand on the steering wheel. Nobody complained about that, nor did we see any accident.

[beelsebob]

Well, you still are insane, but I'll get back later on that .

Here's an idea: why not just reverse the safety concerns and allow DRS on eau rouge? I always found it quite excegerated that they disallowed that. Back in 2010 they did essentially the same with just one hand on the steering wheel. Nobody complained about that, nor did we see any accident.

Most likely because the rule makers remember a time when if you got it wrong, this happened:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRH75RyTgKk[/youtube]

[turbof1]

cars don't reach such speeds anymore (even with DRS), and have much more downforce, and are safer, and the track has been made safer in that part. IMO, they shouldn't let their feelings cloud their judgement.

[raymondu999]

I know it's not the most representative simulation, but in F1 2011 I could take the Eau Rouge entry with DRS, then shut it as I turned right, but I was able to take the climb, and the left kink of Raidillon with DRS open.

[SectorOne]

Might as well draw comparisons with Mario Kart.

[Noble]

Do you guys think that we could see RB struggling in S1 and S3, but dominating S2, whilst with Merc it will be vice versa? I only ask as in previous races we see RB running a shallower angle of attack/lower downforce rear wing, and only matching the other cars around them in the speed traps who were using a much larger AoA rear wing, whilst at Hungary, we saw RB use full on high downforce/steep angle of attack rear wing, and they were pretty much at the bottom of the speed traps when running a rear wing AoA similar to those around them.

So for Spa, presuming most teams, if not all, will bring a lower downforce configuration for the rear wing AoA, RB could be in a similar position as Hungary where when teams are all running similar AoA on the rear wing, RB are usually found lingering at the bottom of the speed traps, whilst still generating good downforce.