DRS zone “a bit too late” for overtaking at Mugello – Giovinazzi

2020 Tuscan Grand Prix Ferrari 1000

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The single DRS zone at Mugello may not be long enough to allow drivers to overtake, Antonio Giovinazzi has warned.

Several drivers have expressed concerns that passing other cars is likely to be very difficult at the Tuscan track. The slowest corner is taken at over 120kph, and drivers never drop below fourth gear on a lap of the circuit.

Giovinazzi, who has not made it out of Q1 so far this season, said he is encouraged by Alfa Romeo’s potential qualifying pace, given the likely difficult of overtaking.

“Going into Q2 for sure is the target and then after that, we’ll see,” he said. “In second practice especially we saw that in the race it will be really important to be at the front and it will be difficult to overtake. So we need to be really focussed on the qualifying tomorrow and do a good job there and then also a good first lap and see after that.”

Giovinazi said he is more concerned about the difficult of overtaking than tyre wear. “The tyres, actually, I think it could be a little bit worse,” he explained. “On Sunday especially it will be hotter so we will see what happens.

“But the main issue on Sunday will be following people. Overtaking will be really hard, especially as DRS is a little bit too late on the straight. But we’ll see.”

The activation point for the single DRS zone is 290 metres after the exit of the final corner, Bucine, past the pit lane entrance.

Sergio Perez echoed Giovinazzi’s concerns about the difficulty of overtaking. “I’m looking forward to being strong tomorrow in qualifying,” he said. “In the race it will be difficult to overtake.”

“Qualifying here is extremely important. I really hope we can qualify well – the car is working well and we should be up there fighting for a good grid position.”

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2020 Tuscan Grand Prix Ferrari 1000

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    5 comments on “DRS zone “a bit too late” for overtaking at Mugello – Giovinazzi”

    1. Well, at least it’s longer than on Monza’s S/F straight, which is roughly as long. BTW, I though the lowest corner-speed is 140 or 135 kph.

    2. As long as Mugello’s equivalent straight, I mean.

    3. Sorry Mr. Giovinazzi, but seeing how Kimi sunk from his inherited 2nd place to 13th (in the end he was even overtook by Latifi), I would say this is only a relative problem. Without any DRS zones I think Kimi would have earned a top10 finish, but DRS not helps cars like Alfa to gain positions, and keep them in the long term. It supports overtaking efforts, which are rare in a lesser car and more frequent in a better. So, as an analytical thought, in the world of having DRS it has relevancy, but DRS takes out a lot of randomness what would be needed to have some fairytale-like results for slower teams. If DRS has to say I would reduce it’s efficiency, by reducing the size of the opening or having less DRS zones, preferably on shorter straights, and go for restricting aero a bit, and add some ground effect instead. Actually the downforce levels already putting unprecedented strain on the tyres, laws of phisics are not likely to change, rubber will be rubber, and can’t change too much, but simply allowing everything in aero development could easily lead to further significant increase of downforce (what could be simply cured with more pit stops, but due the proportional time loss of 2stops strategy vs 1stop strategy it’s currently quite rejected, probably the mandatory 2 stops would be there to have the smaller proportional loss at 2stop vs 3stops, and therefore it’s not that bad idea as it seems? But then softer compounds could be used as the problems are more related to safety than the durability of tread. The last time they tried to have a season without tyre changes, they had to ease that rule mid-season, and then they dropped it without too much debate, so I don’t see the non safety-wise aspects of current tyre durability as a problem, they are quite durable, quite consistent, sadly with some downsides. The mandatory usage of all 3 compounds stills feel artifical, but would add quite a lot of strategy variations.)

    4. Welp get read for a monaco style race. No overtakes and just a train of cars

    5. The F3 race this morning had barely any overtaking, kind of unusual for F3 since there’s usually action all the way through the field. The DRS was also not much of a factor, it did help some cars get past on the start/finish straight, but didn’t see many occurences of this, F1 cars probably going to struggle more. So yeah probably going to be very Monaco-esque and a lot will depend on qualifying.

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