Vettel Offers Unique Solution to Improve Racing

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel responded to a question about the DRS in an amusing manner. Autosport’s Scott Mitchell asked Vettel, Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll and Stoffel Vandoorne about the Drag Reduction System. Suzuka is one of the few tracks where there is only one DRS zone.

Stroll has said that whether 130R is flat or not is dependent on the car. It also depends on how much risk the drivers are willing to take.

He continued, “I think it could only help overtaking. It’s already a track where due to the nature of the track it’s very difficult to follow, with all the high-speed corners and all that, so if there is a way of helping overtaking, helping the show, it would be good.

Meanwhile, Ocon believes that it would be quite a challenge to have a second DRS zone. According to him, it will be even harder than Silverstone’s Turn 1.

He continued, “As Lance said, it could only help overtaking into the last chicane. In the race it would not probably flat, especially following other cars, but in qualifying it could be an interesting challenge.”

However, Vettel flatly admitted his disdain for the DRS. He cheekily suggested “Now we are in Japan, I think Mario Kart, if you remember, it might be more fun to throw bananas out of the cockpit, so maybe it’s a better idea to have bananas than DRS. I don’t like it, I think it’s artificial. I think we should find a different way to make the cars follower each other closer and not rely on DRS.”

McLaren’s Vandoorne agreed with Vettel on the need for DRS. He said, “I think the fact that we are talking about DRS probably shows how difficult it has been for cars to follow each other and to race each other, so I think in the future if we could have much closer racing and do the old school overtakes, that would be the best.”