Johnny Herbert rallies against DRS criticism with Hamilton among frustrated pilots : PlanetF1

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While Lewis Hamilton and George Russell blame shorted DRS areas for boring races, Johnny Herbert says the powers that be can’t win because “it’s bad when it works but it’s bad when it doesn’t not”.

Last season Formula 1 drivers complained that DRS made overtaking too easy, with the lead driver being a sitting duck when their pursuer reached the 1 second margin required to activate DRS.

This prompted the thinking powers to shorten the DRS zones in this year’s championship.

Their decision, however, came at a time when the drivers collectively feel that this year’s cars with their changed ground regulations are struggling to keep up.

Speaking of the Miami Grand Prix, Hamilton said “just being on a DRS train with a bunch of cars and trying to pass a Williams wasn’t that easy” while teammate George Russell said that shortened DRS zones in Baku and Miami and made for “boring” runs.

Three-time Grand Prix winner Herbert believes the FIA ​​is in a hell of a spot if you do, damned if you don’t.

He told Express Sport: DRS is a very, very difficult thing to control. The difference between the fastest car and at the moment it’s Red Bull who have an advantage anyway.

Then you have the Ferrari, then you have the Aston, then the Merc, the McLaren, all the other cars. They are not all the same, so DRS does vary from car to car, team to team.

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You look at what happened in Baku, the race didn’t quite go in the race as they were expecting a lot. So I know he was blamed that it was the DRS. But isn’t it interesting when the DRS works, everyone is fine, overtaking is too easy.

“When it gets to where it’s a bit harder, then it’s wrong. So it’s wrong when it works but it’s wrong when it doesn’t.

Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko recently claimed that the DRS changes were made in order to negate Red Bull’s straight-line speed advantage.

According to its rivals, Red Bull’s DRS is two to three tenths more powerful than the others.

Marko blames Mercedes for the FIA’s shortening of DRS zones, telling motorsport-magazin.com: Overtaking has always been difficult. Then when we also shorten the DRS zone, the reason seems obvious to me.

You need to stop intervening in such a manipulative way.

He added: “It’s unbelievable that Mercedes are angry. They’ve had a superior engine for years. When you build a car that’s a flop two years in a row, you should focus more on that.

Herbert, however, believes it is purely an FIA appeal.

“Who’s making the call?” ” he added. “Well, it must be the FIA.

If you leave it to the drivers and the teams as I see it, they will try to influence it so that it may benefit them. This is not what the FIA ​​is trying to achieve. They try to make overtaking not like Red Bull.

He’s trying to find a balance and over the years they’ve always tried to move him.

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