F1 News

A DRS zone has been dropped for 2019 British Grand Prix

A DRS zone has been dropped for 2019 British Grand Prix

10-07-2019 08:00
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Bobby Vincent

The DRS zone that takes up the first two sweeps of the Silverstone track has been dropped in time for this season's British Grand Prix - reducing the amount of drag reduction system zones to just two.

Last season, Silverstone trialled a new DRS zone from the exit of the last corner until the braking zone for Turn 3. It was an attempt and a decision made by Formula 1 and the track organisers to try and increase the frequency of overtaking.

However, numerous cars did not have the right amount of downforce to go through the zone with its DRS open. Lewis Hamilton labelled the new zone "kind of a pointless exercise, and kind of just dangerous".

For Sunday's race, drivers will only be able to use DRS on the two original zones, on the Wellington and Hangar straights. Following Romain Grosjean and Marcus Ericsson both crashing in last year's race, it is unknown whether that played a key part in the decision to remove the DRS zone.

Sunday will see the 10th race of the 2019 season, and as it stands Mercedes dominate proceedings in the constructors' - leading Ferrari by 135 points - with its driver Hamilton leading the drivers' standings by 31 points.