New cars can't yet do without DRS: 'I would have finished second'.

The new Formula 1 regulations were there precisely to make overtaking more possible, but it's not so easy yet. According to Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, DRS is still necessary for the time being to allow overtaking in F1.

Overtaking in F1 remains difficult

From 2022 onwards, Formula 1 drivers will be driving newly designed cars and the design was created specifically to allow them to race closer together. This appears to have been reasonably successful, as the gaps between drivers are much smaller. However, according to the top three drivers at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, you can't do away with DRS yet, as was hoped beforehand.

"If I didn't have DRS today I would have never passed. I think we are still too sensitive for that. And of course, some tracks are easier to pass than others. But for me at the moment, if DRS wouldn't be there, I would have been second today," said the reigning world champion at the press conference after the Grand Prix.

DRS less powerful

The problem with the current cars is that you can follow, but you still need the exit to actually attack on the straight. In Saudi Arabia, the DRS still proved essential to achieve this. Leclerc therefore agrees with Verstappen and Sainz still has a point for improvement for F1.

"I agree, I think without DRS passing would be reduced significantly. So I think we are still better off with DRS. What we might need to consider maybe is the speed delta that there is with the DRS might be a bit too much, which gives the car behind maybe too much of a speed delta [so] that sometimes the overtake is done before the braking. And you’d much rather have the two cars battling under braking rather than passing like in the highway." the Spaniard concludes.