Ross Brawn does not want the next generation of Formula 1 cars to have the Drag Reduction System (DRS), and is hopeful a solution can be found to enable cars to run close to one-another and slipstream each other down straights.
Current regulations see the DRS being used by drivers in specific points around a circuit when within one-second of the car in front, but Brawn wants to remove this artificial overtaking device from future designs.
Formula 1’s Managing Director of Motorsports, Brawn, is aiming for 2021 as the year when DRS becomes a thing of the past, with work being done behind the scenes to find a solution into the modern day problem of overtaking and following other cars down straights and around corners.
“It’s a compromise,” said Brawn to Autosport. “What we should do is find a better solution. What we really want is the cars to be able to slipstream one another properly and overtake.
“So for me the solution, which we’ve now started a programme on, is to design the cars, so that they can race each other in close proximity. A current Formula 1 car is totally optimised around running by itself.
“The teams, when they go in the windtunnel and create their CFD programmes to develop the car, it’s all done in isolation. So when you put another car around it, the car doesn’t work as well.
“What we are working on is generating the capacity to look at cars that are racing each other in close proximity, and what sort of designs we need to enable that to happen. When we do that, which is our ambition for 2021, then we will have cars that don’t need DRS.”
