“It’s part of the strategy for each driver in terms of defending and overtaking”: Charles Leclerc insists that DRS should not be removed from F1 in the near future

Lately, some people have called for the DRS in F1 cars to be scrapped, but Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc insists that it’s still very important. 

The first two races of the 2022 season have shown how the new regulation changes have taken shape. Cars are now able to follow each closely, and overtaking is a lot more frequent.

Battles between Ferrari’s Leclerc and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in particular, have been eye gripping. The highlight of their latest battle (in Jeddah) was the ‘cat and mouse‘ games they played, right before the DRS detection line started.

With overtaking now easier, many feel that DRS isn’t necessary anymore. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted that he wasn’t a fan of the DRS tricks played between Leclerc and Verstappen.

Leclerc however, could not get enough of his duel with Verstappen. Both drivers repeatedly described just how much they enjoyed racing each other in Jeddah, and the Monegasque driver added that races without DRS would still be boring.

“I think DRS needs to stay for now, otherwise the races would be very boring,” he said as quoted by Motorsport.com. 

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DRS is a part of Formula 1 now, can’t get rid of it, says Charles Leclerc

The Ferrari driver went on to talk about how the 2022 cars are different from it’s predecessors. While they do make overtaking easier, Leclerc feels that it’s still not enough for F1 cars to get rid of the DRS.

“As much as following has been better from last year to this year. And it’s a very positive step, I still think it’s not enough to get rid of the DRS,” he said.

“It’s part of it and I actually quite enjoy it. It’s part of the strategy for each driver in terms of defending and overtaking. And it’s part of racing for now.”

Verstappen and Leclerc traded positions for quite a few laps towards the end of the race. Most of the overtakes they made, were aided by the use of DRS, and the Dutch driver admits he would not have passed Leclerc without it.

“If I didn’t have DRS I would have never passed,” the 24-year old said. “I think we are still too sensitive for that. “And of course, some tracks are easier to pass on than others. But for me at the moment, if DRS wouldn’t be there, I would have been second today.”

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