The Motorsport Thread 2013

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 Gerinski wrote:

A question about the precise points of DRS activation / de-activation in F1.
If I'm right, at the detection point the gap to the car in front is measured and if it's within 1 second, telemetry from the race control will send some signal to the car which will enable the DRS mechanism (a light will be lit on the steering wheel informing the driver of enabled status). Unless such as signal has been received (gap too big or DRS not enabled by race control e.g. first 2 laps, bad weather etc), the driver may accidentally try to activate DRS but it will not work. Right? so no risk of mistake by the driver here.

Then, the main question regards the actual activation, which is done by the driver by a button on the steering wheel or a pedal in the Ferrari: there is a painted line on the track marking the allowed activation point. Is there any control that the driver does not activate DRS a bit earlier than crossing the line? and if so, how is that controlled?

As for deactivation, there is also a painted line marking the latest allowed point for DRS to remain open. I believe that DRS closing is triggered by either the driver releasing the button or whenever he touches the brakes. I presume that the deactivation line is always a bit later than the braking point so again so risk of mistake by the driver keeping it open for too long, right? for if not the same question arises, who and how would control that the driver does not keep DRS open a bit too long, surpassing the deactivation line?

Thanks

All trackside telemetry (timing and scoring, DRS, flag warning light system and Safety Car delta time system, maybe others I don't know about) is from a single system that up until the end of last year was provided by Magneti Marelli but was replaced this year by another company (I'll get back to that later).

Race Control has an override that can enable/disable the DRS for all cars, so when you see the "DRS activated" message on screen on lap 3 race control has literally just turned it on. They'll deactivate it if there's yellow flags in the DRS zone,  the safety car has been deployed or bad weather, and reactivate it if the flags have been removed, on the 3rd lap after the SC comes in, or the track dries out (though given how ludicrously conservative  Charlie Whiting is with wet weather I wouldn't bet on that last one) So yes, unless race control has activated DRS there is no way the driver can activate it.

The detection and activation lines will have a transponder laid through them that will pick up the cars transponder as it passes over. That way race control, and more likely the computer system controlling the DRS activation, will instantly know if a chasing car is within 1 second of the car in front  and provide a light on the steering wheel informing the driver. As for the activation point, the system is set up so that the DRS cannot be opened before the car has passed that transponder, for example in Spain Mark Webber was pressing the button a few meters too early on a few laps not long after his first stop and so was not getting the DRS.

I don't know if their is a deactivation line for the DRS, I think the zone distance is measured from the activation line to either the turn in or apex of the corner. As you say, either releasing the activation button or pressing the brakes will automatically close the DRS. DRS works by shedding downforce, and therefore drag, but this downforce is needed for the braking so the drivers will automatically release the system before the braking zone, or there's no way in hell they'll make the corner. Witness Schumachers retirement from Montreal last year when his DRS jammed open on his run to the turns 8/9 chicane and he went skating off over the grass, though Alonso didn't go flying off in Bahrain when his system jammed open because turn 11 is pretty fast to begin with.

I mentioned the change in telemetry supplier earlier. It has to be said that Monaco was probably the first race all year that the system has worked as it's supposed to. For Australia to Bahrain there was no in car marshal flag warning system and race control didn't have the ability to turn off the DRS system once they'd activated it, leaving it entirely down to the judgement of the drivers once it was turned on on lap 3. It's because of this that nothing happened when half the grid was investigated for using DRS in the yellow flag area at the end of China's main straight (this included Button, who was leading at the time so there was no possible way he could have been using DRS without blatantly cheating anyway). In Spain the DRS part of the system was supposed to have been fixed but it broke down on Di Resta's car early in the race so he and Force India were having to judge for themselves whether or not they could use DRS and they put this as the main reason they couldn't get past Rosberg at the end.    