There is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution.

You should make a video about why on some tracks, it's really difficult to overtake a car (like Australia and Hungary), compared to other tracks where it's easier

I don't really mind DRS, but I feel that adding a 3rd DRS zone in many circuits was not needed

The main problem with your suggestion of shortening the DRS zones and having them start earlier is that when that rear wing closes mid-straight the whole car is destabilized. Imagine a giant hand reaching down and yanking backwards on the wing while you trying to fight someone down a straight, while dealing with their slipstream. That's just asking for an accident. And the stronger the DRS effect, the greater the destabilization when it ends.

People eigther don't know or forgot how it was before DRS: There was basically no overtaking at all! Even at Monza or Montreal, I remember races where someone was catching up to a car over 1 second faster than the car in front, only to get stuck behind them anyway because of all the dirty air... I see DRS as a substitute for slipstream. And just look at the last race in Bahrain, great battles despite 3 DRS zones!

You got my vote - (a) amend the DRS length to the start of the straight as in your last suggestion, but (b) otherwise keep DRS until the rules are properly recrafted for 2021.👍

Very nice April Fools' joke there, sir! You almost got me! ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ Wait.

Could be because i am a recent f1 fan (but my father whatched it so i know a bit about old f1) But i like DRS i see it more like a gift, i mean, you must havr ability in the corners to stay near of your "enemy" and DRS zone it's a reward for that ability. And the HALO i think it looks so good on an f1 car, could be better, but i think it's good. Sorry my english.

What if they let the drivers use DRS anytime they want but put a limit on the amount of seconds they can use it throughout a whole race. A bit like push to pass in Indycar except its DRS. That way it can be used tactically by both the attacking car AND the defending car. I.e the defender can choose to use some of his allowed DRS time to help defend his position.

They said in the current tests with 2021 rules, downforce reduces 5% when chasing another car. Right now that's 50%!

So glad you're back and healthy! I love these videos.

Welcome back Sir! Waited for an upload this channel eagerly :)

Im soo happy to see your videos again!!!! Where did you went for such long time??? Missed your videos soo much !!!

Really enjoyed this video. Glad to see some more content. Hope you are feeling better now

You literally just saved my day! Thank you and keep up your brilliant work! I hope you're better too

I agree that DRS has become a necessary evil, but that DRS zones need tweaking. The original idea was to give the following car enough of a boost to "get alongside". I absolutely hate it when I see DRS "overtakes" that have been completeed before the end of the straight and the car even has the luxury to move back onto the racing line! I also think that DRS should not be enabled during Qualifying. There's no need; its an overtaking aid, not a qualifying aid.

Happy to see you back in action.

What about the opposite ? Something that actually automatically generate more downforce during curves with a calculation based on speed, curve and distance of car in front, because anyway during the curve the downforce is way more important than power (which is rarely flatten out) to compensate for dirty air by simply increasing the average stable cornering speed to match the car in front.

Super pretty animation, really increases the perceived quality of your videos.

He's back! Nice to hear you again Stuart!

Problem with the last idea is that drag is proportional to speed, so the chasing car only gets an advantage towards the end of the straights.

Finnaly a new video from you ! one month was too long to see somthing there :D

Very good video, congrats!

It's good to see you back, Chain Bear!

Welcome back! We missed you!

great video once again, cant wait for the next one

You're one of the good guys in KZfaq! Keep it up, mate! Love you 🥰

little advice as a new viewer: it would help to give a short 20 second explanation of the topic (in this case "what is drs?") so its easier to follow for people that tune in out of interest

Excellent explanation. Always easy to understand

DRS is the best option the sport has right now, but I hope an alternative will be found

One temporary solution I've wondered about is to change the gap when you can use DRS. At the moment it can be used at anything under 1 second, so if a driver's only one or two tenths behind at the detection point, they'll probably breeze past really quickly. How about making DRS available if the chasing car's, say, anything between 0.5 and 1.5 seconds behind?

Indycar has Push to Pass that can be used at anytime with a set time for use. It’s worked pretty well in the series

I really like the idea of an earlier shorter DRS zone. However it would add a level of complexity by needing a new system to trigger flap closure rather than a brake hydraulic pressure sensor such as they use currently. That said F1 is nothing if not complex so hopefully it could be implemented without too many glitches. Edit: Great to see a new video from you. With so much going on at the start of the season it seemed like ages since you uploaded.

Firstly, credit where credit is due. Thank you for an in depth and informative video. Lets not lose sight of the fact that F1 cars have had to deal with "dirty air' in the past, and there was plenty of skilled overtaking by drivers. Tyre strategy coupled with fuel loads made for great racing where the best characteristics per car per track could be utilised. Now that was great racing. Companies with deep pockets have confirmed over and over again that money equals technical progress and translates into dominance. DRS highlights that dominance. Let all cars run for 4 hours and record their best times, then invert the grid and let them race. Here is where DRS kicks in (and I am not seeing much reference to this.....) ....the race will end with the cars finishing as per their qualifying times set (last first and first last). Fastest starting last will finish first. With DRS there is no challenge. DRS has highlighted its greatest weakness, fastest cars will benefit. Also bear in mind that all developers will create a car that derives the greatest advantage from DRS. So now we focus on the word...overtaking and the answer will be: " FIA, we succeeded, overtaking is now prominent in F1" Possible suggestions Ballast weights (eg: 120kg per driver) will equalize the weight difference per vehicle (currently it has the fastest slim drivers, not fastest drivers), drivers are excluded due to weight disadvantage. Reduce size of front wing, too many incidents of unnecessary damage because of huge nose (yes engineers will work around this, they always do.....go check) Technology...my what a word!!! Yet there have been serious failures in fueling cars. Why not get that crucial racing element back into racing, fuelling. Offers so many variables that no team is safe. Currently, the fastest teams lap the slower cars within the first 15 laps, and the field is so spread out that 5 second penalties are a joke. 5 Sets of tyres to each race and let teams decide (coupled with fuel strategy) which works best. To those that talk about tyre wear, have you not heard comments of how some drivers look after their tyres in a race, consider that driver with a more aggressive tyre, lower fuel............too many variables that even the faster teams would have to take note of every team on the day. In conclusion, get rid of DRS, let engineers work around the dirty air (as they always have), throw fueling into the mix (please, I only refer to absolute safe fueling technology and procedures, something that history will prove has been achieved) get back to a purer form of racing, otherwise, get rid of drivers and let the vehicles drive themselves. F1 fan enthusiast.....hmmmmmm I am not sure if I am any more...........Australian Super cars.....F1 go look and learn, that's what I call racing

With the proposed 2021 regulations around ground effect, it would be cool to see extra floor tunnels able to be opened up to increase downforce if following a car closely, rather than DRS used to reduce drag on straights. Result would be increasing performance in the corners before straights, allowing cars to close up, and have a more natural slipstream effect.

What about push-to-pass bear? Also known as "Attack mode" on FE, it essentially gave the engine their quali trim mode or increase fuel flow of the car for limited of time. A nitrous boost on basic arcade games basically. The draft from dirty air creates bigger slipstream, and with the push to pass it could do a massive drag race towards the straight.

Absolutely backed my thoughts. Another system I’d like is the drs being enabled for the straight prior to the longest straight, so to bring them in range, but the overtake is normal racing, ie DRS enabled going into the last corner at Bahrain, but is not available down the pit straight. But automatic de activation is an obvious change that must be made soon

Missed your videos so much

A different approach: as part of the series spec, add a test of turbulence at a distance of 20' behind the car. Basically require the cars to condition the trailing air flow. Then the trailing car won't have the dirty air issue.

I missed sooooo much your vídeos Chain Bear

I like your short term Drs fix and long term driver controlled active aero if there's standardized aero

Regardless of the opinions, awesome video as always ChainBear, well written and explained.

I had an idea that DRS should have some form of 'blind spot' - in that you can use it as much as you like to get closer to the car in the position directly in front of you (so the driver in first can't use it, and back markers can't be taken advantage of), but when you're within, say, 0.5 seconds of that car, DRS is disallowed. Thus, DRS is used purely to *set up* this close racing. I also believe that in quali you should be able to use DRS whenever you like - regarding your point about corners it shouldn't be used on, I believe cars are safe enough now for us to be able to leave the judgement to the drivers, and be able to enjoy the spectacle of a huge crash, knowing full-well the driver will be absolutely safe. I think that would make quali hugely exciting.

Makes sense. In Mariokart you get better weapons the farther back you are, to help you catch up. And it works. Mariokart is hella exciting.

Idea: Just watch f2 or touring cars so theres a bit of competition and excitement

They could put a system in place from the dtm. Where you get limited use of Drs, standard rules apply for when and where you can use it. You get three uses a lap, and say 24 uses in total across the race. Then in the final few laps, you can use any remaining Drs charges in the zones regardless of if you're within the one second time zone from the car in front. This would make for exciting racing by tracking how much Drs a driver has left, and such. As well as making the final 5 laps or so very exciting. As first and second May not have any Drs left from battling all race, so third can use all his charges and catch up. It makes for exciting racing in dtm, however that's hard top and very a different racing series

Holy shit! It's a chainbear video!

You should take a look to the DTM racing series. As far as I know, they applied the DRS, only allowed for xx laps per race.

Several years ago, Mario Andretti suggested a way to make better racing in F!. His concepy was to make the cars faster on the straights with less downforce and hence slower in the corners.

If the dirty air is the underlying problem, then why don't the rules specify an/the outcome (cleaner air off the back of the car, testable using the same methods as the teams during testing) rather than attempting to force that outcome through a myriad of size and shape regulations?

Won't the DRS effect be reduced when accelerating from a corner? I thought it had the greatest effect towards the end of the straight when the car in front hits it's top speed(unaided by drs).

Ok hear me out, what if we took drs, and instead of making it reduce drag/downforce in straights, we make it increase downforce in corners for the car behind, this would level out them in corners (by making their downforce levels similar via DBS (downforce boost system) and also make both cars faster and always equal in the straights due to reduced drag in standard drag configuration, so instead of rear wing opening in drs, it closes in dbs

That Bahrain race was one of the best races I’ve ever seen, hmm and without drs I don’t think any of those overtakes would have been possible. Without drs it would just be like the early 00s

Best way, in my opinion, is to give a greater DRS time limit per lap in conjunction with a drivers position in the race. For instance the lead car gets 5 sec per lap, 2nd gets 6 sec, 3rd gets 7 sec, and so on and so forth. Of course the times would have to be different that what I put but, you get the point.

i've always thought that drs should only be used to keep cars close to each other and not be used for overtaking meaning if gaps are too much between cars they should be allowed to use it as much as they want but not allowed for overtaking and if slipstream is well effective then there's completely no use of drs during overtaking but can still be used to keep cars packed less likelihood of having lapped cars and smaller teams may have a higher chance of getting points when cars in the front make mistakes

I think a good idea would be to put the drs zones on shorter straights instead of the longer straights. This'll mean that the cars will stay close without artificial before the breaking zone overtakes. Also certain straights don't seem to need drs like the one at Paul Ricard or the kemmle straight at spa. I'm not sure how well it would work but I'm yet to come up with too many downsides

I thought when most people suggest being able to use DRS everywhere, it's still a suggestion for only chasing cars 1 second (or a similar time gap) behind? I think this would be the best and "least artificial" way. It could allow exciting passing and re-passing, and would prevent any of the issues around drivers waiting for a DRS zone, as essentially everywhere would become a DRS zone. Drivers could simply have a light on their steering wheel that lights up when they are within the 1 second window, and the existing timing matrix could probably be used - although it may need improvement for accuracy, especially for accuracy in close battles with passing and re-passing. There is nothing worse than when someone gets by another driver and then still gets the benefit of DRS to prevent the guy he has just passed from having any chance at immediately counter attacking.

Alternate proposal: allow any and all aerodynamics including active. create a rule that regulates aerodynamic turbulence 1 meter behind the vehicle. Thus making it a requirement for cars to clan up the air they traveled through before the next car gets to it.

Great video Stuart, I will add that the car in dirty air over utilize their tires to try to stay in touch by pushing them harder whish is also a disadvantage. Aero is great but is also bad. DRS is still technology, something F1 is about and is the best solution for the problem at hand at the moment I agree.

Moving DRS zone earlier in the straight and making it automatically shut half way down the straight, this might be a brilliant idea, would love to see that tested.

Scrape DRS and give the chasing car movable side skirts on corners. This would equal the downforce on corners and there would be the slipstream on the straights.

There are only 2 ways to solve the lack of overtaking problem. 1. Ground effect cars. 2. Tracks where it's possible to take more than one line into and out of a corner.

If my memory serves me well, the dirty air effect is only prominent when the performance of the two cars are quite similar (for instance last year it was within a delta of 2s). So I think that if we have two cars of a similar baseline performance but that can have a performance delta of more than 1.5s at cenrtain points of the race, close racing can be a thing even with dirty air. And I fell that this performance delta can come from the tyres having a performance difference of more than 1s between each compound. Moreover, this means that the tyre deg will be even greater on the softer tyres resulting in races with more pitstops and possibly more varied strategies. For instance, why not force every driver to use every compound in every race. In my opinion this could be a possible solution to have closer racing. Along with a return of the ground effect, which I believe does not create as much wake for the following car.

The best solution would be to find a way to objectively quantify the amount of dirty air a car leaves in it's wake and then regulate that. Though I suppose if that were easy and practical it'd have been done and DRS wouldn't be needed at all.

What if we had 2 types of DRS zones? 1 long DRS zone for the chasing car that starts at the exit of a corner, and 1 short DRS zone for the leading car that starts around the middle of the straight? So once the chasing car catches up, the leading car gets a little boost to make them equal.

Chainbear please do a video on race tracks maybe explaining features of a track, what's needed to build an fia grade 1 circuit or rating the best race track

Why not allow DRS to be used when within a specified window. For example between 2 and .5 seconds of the next car, so you can use DRS to get close, but not to pass the car. DRS would then be used to set up a move, and get the cars close, but the overtake wouldn’t be artificial as you could not use DRS to complete the pass.

A noteworthy problem with this video is that for beginner F1 fans like myself it would be great to get a very brief explanation of what DRS a little earlier. Otherwise very good content and visuals on this video and all others ive seen so far

the problem is that teams design the cars to be as fast as possible in a quali trim not race trim. So in the wind tunnel they will only use nice laminar flow hitting the car. FOM should be force teams to design cars around the concept of racing each other not outright lap times

maybe it would be interesting to try variable DRS zones. You have DRS from the exit of the corner until your nose is at the front car's tail. From then on you are at a position to slip stream and simulate a "normal" overtake. Less powerful cars will enjoy longer DRS zones than leading cars and maybe they could also challenge the front-runners for longer on race starts....this would make DRS car specific rather than track specific. We could also allow DRS as a defensive (i.e using DRS while being overtaken) measure for teams r.g. below third position in the championship etc...This could maybe close the gap between midfield and front-runners leading to more interesting racing...

Would it not make more sense to increase the size of the MGU-K and/or its storage and give drivers free use anywhere on the circuit? Drivers could use more electrical power on some corners and straits to get close and overtake, the defending driver could do the same but would need to judge where the other driver will deploy. If he gets it wrong and leaves it too late he still has the power to try and re-take the position later in the lap. Basically you would make up for loss of aero with more mechanical grip, which would also make tyre choice and wear a bigger issue and maybe force more gambles with different pit stop strategy.

I would be okay with a spec front wing and restricted bargeboards. They also need to put a lot more emphasis on ground effect aero, as that's a far cleaner downforce than wings.

What about doing it more like Indycar, where you can use the system (push to pass in their case) anytime on the track but for a limited time throughout the whole race, not just per lap, so they'd have to strategically activate it throughout the race and not just between laps, this would create a much larger variety of when drivers activate it. (I hope this can be easily understood)

Chain bear Can you PLEASE do a video on all the different set up changes that F1 teams will try during Free Practice sessions. Aero, Suspension, Alignment, Engine mapping, cooling, gear rations. Please Please Please, Im an F1 geek and I just love to know what the teams do to set the car up for a particular circuit

This is hopefully where the 2022 rework of the cars will shine the most. The new type will have 5 times less dirty air, meaning closer racing can be achieved in the corners.

Great Video. Again. 👍

Hope you're feeling better

It would be probably very complicated to instaure it and unreliable but what about fully active aerodynamics on cars ? With wings lowering when the car accelerates, and closing at braking and turning ? Also, the angle of the wings could be proportionnal to the pressure applied on brake and throttle pedals, and only closing on the side of the turn when the car is turning, to use just the downforce needed, thus reducing the "useless" drag and dirty air for the car behind. And even if it would be impossible or uninteristing to see it in race, could this be an interesting idea for "extreme" cars only allowed on tracks, like Aston Martin Vulcan, Valkyrie AMR Pro, Ferrari FXX K, McLaren P1 GTR, etc. (to chase lap times), or for the hypercars coming to WEC in 2020 ? :) This would be less artificial than DRS, reducing even more the drag and the dirty air without "damaging" cars' lap times on track, what do you think ? :)

After the start and after restarts we also have overtakes with no DRS. It's really no excuse. Apart from that, allowing DRS anywhere and anytime can for sure make a difference to the chasing car. There are some cars that are better through fast corners than others and some will be able to open the DRS earlier, even while they're in dirty air. Also drivers won't take all the risk all the time and the chasing driver can take a chance or two.

Great video. As always... :)

Really sharp video. I'm not the biggest fan of DRS but this is a great argument against its detractors.

How about placing a sensor that automatically closes the drs once it detects that each car is side by side enough? Maybe place it in the front wheel, so when it detects another sensor in the leading car's rear wheel it closes the drs

It could be permanent. Look at KERS which is now an all time use system that the driver controls as the car needs it (ERS). KERS was a timed, lap by lap charge that couple be used whenever but only for a set time. So maybe when the dirty air is solved DRS will stay but in a different role.

please make a video explaining the the vortex that occur on the sides of the rear wing! i guess there is some science behind it that you can clearly explain!!

What about a limited nuber of DRS uses? Like in DTM in a Race of 1h they have like 20+- Drs uses, when they within a sec of the leading car

Im a real recent F1 fan but correct me if im wrong... I read some rules about DRS and you aren't always allowed to use it. You need to have a 1s only gap to be able to use it and a few more rules that I honestly didn't keep in my mind. Seems like a good system until a better one comes out

How about placing a sensor on cars to detect "dirty air," which will then automatically activate DRS, KERS, or some other speed-boosting system? Basically, it would be like the "drafting" speed boost implemented in some videogames, and directly compensate for dirty air drag as it's experienced by the cars rather than a more arbitrary system of providing advantage.

Here is the solution: Make them all "Brabham Fan Cars" with sideskirts. This way each car would be mostly relying on ground effect for its downforce, which isn't nearly as negatively influenced by turbulent air as wings are. In order to keep cornering speeds from becoming too dangerous, the FIA could mandate that each sideskirt must have "X" number of vertical slots (of a predetermined height and width) cut into it's entire length in order to bleed air out from underneath the car. Hell, forget the fan altogether and just let the teams have the above mentioned vented sideskirts and a larger diffuser. The whole point is to stop the teams from relying on wings for downforce and focus more on other areas that don't suffer as badly from turbulent air. This way we still get fast laps, but we also regain the ability for cars to follow each other closer.

Indycar has a system called "Push to Pass." They have a limited amount of time in a race to give themselves an extra horsepower boost, sort of like Formula E. They get about 60 bonus hp that they can use for x amount of time during a race at any point on the track

Well, obviously the solution is to carry rockets on top of the car so you can increase downforce without aerodynamics involved... The most kerbal way ever... Now seriously... Couldn't it be a thing to use drs in reverse? Give the car behind an active boost in downforce by adding a wing that goes down instead of up? That way instead of giving back the disadvantage at another time, the disadvantage could be avoided altogether... I know that because of the unpredictability of dirty air this may be difficult but I believe it could be done

Great video and I agree with your points, but I hate this bandaid approach. F1 is supposed to be the pinnacle of tech so why are there not better forms of rules than the "shape of the car". - There may be better ways but I believe the best solution would be that aero design could be less restricted physically, but have a strict 'air stability test' around the car in a wind tunnel. The rule would state that airflow measured behind the car and to the rear quarters at x meters must be below a threshold compared to the tunnel's airspeed. Maybe even randomise the points that the airspeed is measured to keep teams honest?

Idea - unrestricted DRS, but limited DRS time per race (and not per lap) Yes, this could give huge advantage to the leading car, using all its DRS in the beggining, but might give away the edge during late race. Also - maybe more DRS time the further back you are?

A solution could be you can only use Drs a limited number of times which could be anywhere from on 30-40 times in a fifty lap race. You could use it anytime unless your in the lead or their is a car within 2 seconds behind you.

Some ideas: -drs for everyone, everytime, except for the first. -drs time per lap, but the amount of time is proportional to your position. 20th place has full drs time, while first has none. -3s activation zone. Dirt air zone is only 1s behind? Let help to get closer in less time. Or if 3 is too much, 2,or 1.5

Hey ChainBear, could you do a video on Suction Fans (Ground Effect) please; why they are no longer used in F1 (Brabham BT46) and why they can't be used to generate extra down force to compensate for dirty air?

How about simplyfiying the cars wings and adding the "skirts" on the side of the car (like Lotus did back in the day) so that downforce is maintained? I understand the skirt effect is less susceptible to dirty air.....

WOO you’re back ⛓🐻

I wish your example at 1:15 showed what the air is actually doing: a massive amount of air is being blown upwards by the front and rear wings to make the downforce. intact its an amount of air in weight equal to the downforce.

Agree that DRS may not be the best solution then again, what other solutions do we have to make the race more competitive. Nico Rosberg commented that the reason why Leclerc made mistake at the start of Bahrain GP was due to the new paddle shift clutch set up rule. Can you explain on this on one of your KZfaq vlog?

What's the fun in having spec wings? Moving the DRS zone towards the beginning of the straight is a genius idea