How DRS works
DRS — the Drag Reduction System — is a flap in the rear wing that flattens on command, dumping drag and adding roughly 10–12 km/h of straight-line speed. It could only be used in marked 'DRS zones', and only when a car crossed the detection point within one second of the car ahead.
The design goal was surgical: give the chasing car just enough advantage to offset the dirty-air penalty of following, without making passes automatic.
The controversy
Purists argued DRS made overtaking artificial — a 'push-to-pass' button rather than earned racecraft. Defenders pointed at pre-DRS seasons where faster cars sat trapped for fifty laps. The truth lived circuit by circuit: well-calibrated zones produced battles; overpowered ones produced motorway passes.
'DRS trains' showed the system's limit: a queue of cars each within a second of the next, all with DRS open, all unable to pass because their advantages cancelled out.
2026: from DRS to override
The 2026 regulations retired classic DRS. All cars now flatten their wings on straights automatically (X-mode) — low drag is standard, not a chasing bonus. The overtaking aid moved to the power unit: a 'manual override' gives the attacking car extra electrical deployment when within range of a rival.
Same philosophy, new hardware: compensate the follower for dirty air, keep the pass a fight.