About F1

What happened to DRS?

DRS no longer exists in Formula 1. It was used from 2011 to the end of 2025, and the 2026 rules replaced it with two separate systems: Straight Mode, which lets every car open its wings on the straights, and overtake mode, which gives a chasing car extra electrical energy.

What DRS was

DRS stands for Drag Reduction System. It was a flap in the rear wing that the driver could open with a button, cutting drag and adding top speed. When the driver braked, it snapped shut.

It came with strict conditions. A driver could only use it:

  • in a DRS zone, a marked section of straight, usually one to three per track
  • if they were within one second of the car ahead at the zone's detection point
  • in the race after the first two laps, and not straight after a safety car restart, or when race control had disabled it (for example in the wet)

In practice and qualifying, drivers could use it freely in the zones.

Why it was introduced

Before 2011, cars struggled to overtake because following another car closely meant losing downforce in its turbulent air (see slipstream and dirty air). DRS was meant to give the chasing car a way to make up for that on the straights.

It did lead to more passes. It was also criticised from the start, because some of those passes were too easy: the car behind would drive past on the straight with no fight at all.

DRS trains

DRS had an odd side effect. If several cars were all within a second of each other, every one of them got DRS. The car in second could open its wing to chase the leader, but the car in third could too, and so on. Nobody gained anything, and the group stayed stuck together. Fans called this a DRS train.

Why it went

The 2026 cars needed a low-drag mode for efficiency anyway, since so much of their power comes from a battery with a limited amount of energy. Once every car could open its wings on the straights, a wing-based overtaking aid made no sense. So the FIA moved the advantage to the power unit instead, and overtake mode was born.

You'll still hear commentators say a driver is "in DRS range" out of habit. In 2026 the right term is within a second for overtake mode.