This year has seen the most unpredictable start to a Formula 1 season for nearly 30 years, before the Spanish GP there had been four winners in as many races, and eight different drivers from six teams on the podium. Interestingly, the number of overtaking manoeuvres, according to Mercedes-Benz, is fairly similar to 2011, with 327 in 2012, compared to 326 in 2011. This figure includes passes made because of damage, and those on cars from the three slowest teams, but does not include position changes on the first lap of each race. If one analyses still further, one finds that in 2011 there were 220 “normal and DRS” overtakes in the first four races, the figure taking out all the passes on the slowest three teams by teams with faster cars. In 2012 this figure is 215. However, last year these moves were split 50:50 between normal and DRS overtakes. In 2012, this split has been 68:32 in favour of normal overtaking. This compares to a season average from 2011 of 55:45 between normal and DRS overtaking, which suggests that the amount of normal overtaking has increased significantly in proportion to last year.
Does this mean that DRS is less influential than it was? The statistics suggest that this is indeed the case because in two of the first four races last year DRS overtakes exceeded normal overtakes. This year that has not been the case. In every race normal overtaking has outnumbered DRS overtaking. However, one must allow for other factors, such as the influence of DRS in helping a driver to close the gap to a car in front, conserve his tyres and allow for the strategic deployment of KERS elsewhere on the circuit to help him pass outside the DRS zone.
It is hard to say at this early stage if the overall overtaking has increased. In 2011, the average number of normal and DRS overtakes per race was 43. So far, there have been on average 54 moves per race in 2012 – a clear increase on 2011. However, by way of direct comparison, the first four races of 2011 saw an average of 55 moves. The most meaningful comparisons so far can be drawn from the races in Australia and China, which were run on the same circuits and in similar conditions both years. The 2011 season opener (the first race at which DRS was ever used) featured a total of 17 normal and DRS passes; in 2012, there was exactly twice as much passing – 34 overtakes in total. What’s more, although the 2012 race featured two DRS passing zones, this did not see a large relative increase in DRS assisted overtaking: DRS accounted for 30 percent of passing in 2011 and 35 percent of passing in 2012. In China last year, there were 67 normal and DRS overtakes – with normal overtakes accounting for 30 of them (45 percent). This year saw 69 passes, but 41 of them were normal overtakes (59 percent). The DRS zone remained identical to last year, but the race saw a significantly larger proportion of normal overtaking.
This article is written by Joe Saward and published in Grand Prix Plus issue 102
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