Is it DRS, tyres, or KERS making the difference?

So, my friend has stopped watching F1 because he thinks DRS takes no skill and F1 has become no less than *glorified football*. I agree that's it's taken the skill away from overtakes from using DRS, but judging on the Spanish Grand Prix, it may not be DRS making the difference in the number of overtakes we're seeing; Martin Brundle said he thinks it's the tyres making most of the difference, and I think based on this Spanish Grand Prix, it was.

However, at Turkey, I think it was a mixture of all three causing the overload of overtakes, especially at those last couple of corners (which I think was mostly DRS, in that corner's case).

So, what do you guys think? I'm trying to prove to said friend of mine that it's not all DRS making the difference, although I agree it definitely has played a part.

What do you guys think?

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It's all three.

KERS is making the least difference (unless a car has none (Webber at Sepang)) as all the top teams have it to some degree.

DRS is allowing the cars to stay closer to each other along the straights, so even when it's not producing overtaking directly, it's allowing moves where there otherwise would be few (Melbourne's turns 3 and 4).

Tyres are the most critical part *spoiler* and at no point this season was it more visible than Vettel's first out-lap from the pits today.*spoiler*

I could quite happily live without either DRS or KERS (the latter of which only adds a complication and doesn't really offer anything to the racing) this season and just keep the tyres the way they are (though maybe with more tyres for them to play with from Saturday onwards).



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2011 09:02PM by gav.

+1 on that Gav, thanks for giving your valuable input

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*** SPOILER ***

At least with Button, most his overtakes this season have been out of the DRS zone as far as ive seen (please feel free to correct, I am going of fanboy memory and tv coverage :p).

I agree with Gav who has pretty much nailed it, but I think the tyres are what are producing the great racing. Without the DRS each race so far would have been as awesome as they have been with DRS...

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

The tyres play the main part in this. Overtaking is ensued by a performance difference and the tyres are the largest part of that. We could do without DRS or KERS (or both), but without the DRS, we'd lose some of the battles.

**SPOILERS BELOW**




Todays battle between Vettel and Hamilton could only go on because Hamilton could keep up thanks to the DRS, without the DRS, Vettel would've driven away easily.

Another example is Rosber and Schumacher. Rosbergs DRS didn't work and therefore couldn't attack Schumacher, or at least, that's what he said. So it really works too well. The drivers behind rely too much on the DRS because it does its job too well. So in the end, tyres do the most, but the DRS does too much. Yes, it is becoming a bit artificial, but apparently that's the only way we seem to get any overtaking these days.

Nickv Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> >
> **SPOILERS BELOW**
>
>
>
>
> Todays battle between Vettel and Hamilton could
> only go on because Hamilton could keep up thanks
> to the DRS, without the DRS, Vettel would've
> driven away easily.
>

I doubt he would've gone away that easily considering how Alonso wasn't exactly holding Vettel up in the first stint & I trust macca to be atleast as quick as ferrari. Fortunately DRS didn't mean /godmode on this track.

It's definitely about the tires, nailing the right moments to pit is key