DTM: DRS usage altered to avoid 'trains'

DRS usage in the DTM this year will be defined by the number of laps in a race, and the length of the circuit.

In a bid to avoid "DRS trains" of cars using the system to stay in touch and/or defend, the series has revamped it, coinciding with changes to its performance weights. The main tweak is that each driver will have a maximum number of DRS activations for each race, grouped three at a time.

This allocation will be the number of anticipated laps multiplied by three, then divided by two, essentially giving drivers three activations to use on half of the number of racing laps. At Hockenheim, for instance, that equates to 39 DRS activations in the 40-minute Saturday race – 26 laps last year – and 57 in the 60-minute Sunday race – 39 laps last year.

Drivers will still be deemed within DRS zone when they start a lap within one second of the car ahead, and they can now use it from the second lap of the race, rather than the fourth. If they then choose to use DRS at all during that lap, three will be removed from the driver's tally, regardless of if they use it once, twice or three times. That is designed to stop defending drivers stockpiling DRS activations for later in the race, based on the logic it takes more hits of the system to catch and then pass a car in front.

Audi driver Jamie Green feels it is a step in the right direction, but equally feels bigger issues could be tackled to improve racing in the DTM.

"You can't use it every lap," Green told Autosport. "You've got limited usages. I think that's better but I think in general DRS isn't really the answer to our problems.

"If we just reduce downforce levels and have a tire that degrades more we would get better racing anyway. I think DRS is a bit of a bandage over the wound rather than a real answer. So I don't think it'll make a massive difference.

"The reason they've done it is to prevent people from just hanging on and sitting behind – last year you could just sit there the whole race, benefiting from the lap time of DRS and not actually overtaking."

Originally on Autosport.com