Originally Posted by ACU:
“You have not been able to follow a car closely for at least a couple of decades. Travelling in a cars dirty air has always been a problem. Many a time over the last couple of decades, you were able to catch the car infront, but werent able to overtake it. ”
It's been a case ever since cars relied on aero dynamics. As team added more and more winglets, it became worse and worse. But here's the thing....downforce only increases the maximum force that a tire can produce, and that maximum force also relies on how constant the contact patch between the track and the tire is.
The grooved tires made the contact patch not just smaller, but also less constant due to the shape of the ridges. Aerodynamic wake has always been a problem, but it became even bigger when the grooved tires were introduced.
If you compare how closely cars can follow now through the corners with reduce wake and also slick tires, with the old aero with grooved tires then you'll see that it has been massively improved.
The real issue is driver skill and also the tire compounds themselves. Which being me to....
Originally Posted by ACU:
“Thats why they brought in DRS, to allow a car to pass, once they got up close to the car infront.”
No, the brought in DRS to cover up for a lack of drive skill in passing. The braking distances are so short, that most drivers lack the ability to think and react where you would traditional pass. Add to that the fact that the tires are no longer durable enough to withstand repeated increased stressed due to late braking and trail braking, the FIA were scratching their heads at how to make it easier.
They wanted every driver to be like Lewis Hamilton, but without the massive ability to control a car under repeated, heavy braking.
Instead of increasing the braking distances by banning CF brakes, they messed about with one of the most critical components, the tires. And then they took away any real racing skill requirement by adding DRS. All that was required, was that they drive faster than the guy in front either due to tire wear differences, fuel saving differences or some other factor related to strategy as opposed to driving.
What many F1 drivers don't still seem to understand, is that passing is not just about trying to go around the racing line faster than the guy in front. The reliance on aerodynamics, as well as the fact that there's a car occupying the racing line makes that a rather....unintelligent way to make a pass.
The ideal way is to go OFF the racing line when you're out of the worst of the aero wake before you make the pass, brake late, go faster around the outside and deny the apex to the guy in front. That means the guy in front has had their racing line and pace absolutely wrecked for that turn. But that requires skill - the ability to think ahead, to have room in your head for more than just following the racing line and to have the required amount of ability to handle a car under harsh breaking.
See Schumacher and Hamilton as prime examples of this. especially under the pre-slicks/drs era. See Maldonando and Perez as examples of drivers who "get it" but don't have the same conviction or ability to pull it off.