19/05/2017
NEWS STORY
In the wake of an entertaining Spanish Grand Prix, the FIA is pondering extending the DRS zones at more races this season.
Already frustrated at Pirelli's decision to take the hard tyres to Barcelona, at Friday's driver briefing Felipe Massa suggested that in a bid to aid overtaking, especially in light of the snorefest at Sochi, which officially witnessed just one manoeuvre, the DRS zone on the pit straight should be extended.
With his fellow drivers giving their support, overnight the FIA announced that the DRS zone was to be extended by 100 metres.
As a result, over the course of Sunday's race, fans were treated to 18 successful overtaking manoeuvres aa well as a number of failed attempts.
With the aid of DRS, and also the speed differences as a result of the 2s gap between the tyre compounds Sebastian Vettel's move on Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton's subsequent move on the German proved to be among the highlights of the race. That said, there were a number of other good moves further down the field, Marcus Ericsson pulling off three, two on Lance Stroll and another on Fernando Alonso.
As a result the FIA is understood to be looking at extending the DRS zones at a number of tracks this year, with Auto Motor und Sport suggesting Silverstone, Hungary, Japan and Abu Dhabi as the most likely venues.
Prior to Sochi and its lone overtake, the previous races had all seen a significant drop in overtaking courtesy of the new regulations, Melbourne down to 5 from 37 in 2016, China 33 from 128 and Bahrain 33 from 84. Last year's race at the Circuit de Catalunya witnessed 54 moves.