For the first time, this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix will feature three DRS activation zones.
In hopes of increasing overtaking manoeuvres in the opening round of the season, a DRS detection point has been added 170 metres before turn eleven on the Albert Park track, with the activation zone being between turns twelve and thirteen.
The new DRS zone is in addition to the two which have been in place in previous events – on the start/finish straight, and on the run to turn three. These two activation zones have a single detection point, which comes before turn fourteen on the Melbourne track.
The new DRS zone has been put in place to allow drivers to close up to the car ahead before they reach the DRS activation zone on the main straight. Last year, there were only fourteen overtakes during the Australian Grand Prix.
The 2018 Formula One season begins in Melbourne this weekend.
After graduating in 2015 with a First Class honours degree in English Language and Literature, Nicky Haldenby, a lifelong fan of Formula 1, founded the Lights Out F1 Blog in 2016. Now in its sixth season, the blog has become a firm fan-favourite, delving deep into the sport’s history books and lifting the cover on unusual F1 statistics. Nicky also writes at F1Destinations and GPDestinations. In 2017 and 2018, he wrote for Badger GP. Nicky is also the host of the F1 Rewind Podcast and can be heard as the resident stats man on the 2 Soft Compounds Podcast.