FIA makes dramatic U-turn on Australian GP DRS decision

The FIA statement read: "Following the feedback received in the last hour from Teams and Drivers, and additional analysis contributed by Teams, the decision to remove Straight Mode zone #4 for Albert Park is rescinded.

It is a major turnaround for the FIA, which had scheduled a press moment less than two hours before releasing this statement. During that press session, Nikolas Tombazis explained in detail why the fourth straight mode had been removed. Some drivers were reportedly afraid of crashing with the straight mode open in that zone.

GPblog quickly understood that there was a lot of criticism from other teams. On of the complaints came from Gabriel Bortoleto, who is said to have told the meeting that he lost control of the car when he got overtaken by Charles Leclerc. Audi was not the only team that asked for a change, more teams were in favour of a change.

After the FIA made the change, the other teams protested. GPblog has now learned that teams who do not feel safe in that section of the circuit will reduce their use of that mode. It is not known which other teams besides Audi are involved.