TRACKSIDE VIEW
With the first DRS zone at Silverstone including Turn 1, the fast Abbey right-hander, the question heading into Friday morning’s free-practice session is which driver will go through there with the rear wing open first? Just after 10 minutes into the session, and on his first flying lap, it’s Max Verstappen in the Red Bull.
He turns into the corner flat-out, with a shower of sparks as the outside of the front wing and the leading edge of the floor grind onto the track. With the
DRS open, you have less rear downforce so the aerodynamic centre of pressure shifts forward, and as a result the rake is exaggerated. It’s a surprise, doing this lap after lap, that Red Bull doesn’t damage the skidblocks.
With Red Bull the only team willing to keep the DRS open, various drivers are keeping it open for the entry and shutting it before the apex for rear stability. Moments after the hour mark, Romain Grosjean in the Haas gets it badly wrong.
Just before the apex, over the bumps, the rear snaps away savagely and puts him into a highspeed spin into the wall. We later hear, over the radio, that he failed to close the DRS because he “missed the button” after hitting a bump. Following that error, there’s nothing he can do to save it.
The Ferrari doesn’t seem to ride the bumps as well as its rivals. Initially, the car is too pointy on turn-in and the rear moves around. The Red Bull, by contrast, rides the bumps well, although the DRS factor makes it difficult to compare.
As expected, the Mercedes looks well-planted and stable, but the drivers still have to work at it. On a couple of occasions they turn in a fraction late and the car moves around quite significantly, so it’s not a walk in the park.
Looking further down the timesheets, early in the session the Renault drivers have to use all the entry kerb to get into the corner and combat the understeer. It unsettles the car, although on later runs some of this understeer is dialed out and they can turn in at a more orthodox point.
Having the DRS available is, ultimately, a damp squib as it’s clear it won’t help overtaking. Given so few are using it, you won’t see anyone keeping it open while in the turbulent air following another car. Grosjean’s crash probably did £300,000 worth of damage, maybe more. So while there’s possibly a bit of lap time in keeping it open, there’s no real gain to the racing. Only extra risk.