Alonso believes that DRS will always be necessary for F1 entertainment

While DRS may not be for everyone, Fernando Alonso believes it is here to stay and that F1 would be less entertaining without it.

The drag reduction technology, which may be employed when a driver is a second or fewer behind the car in front, has been on the grid since the start of the 2011 season and has unquestionably led in more overtakes.

Some argue that it has made passing cars too easy and artificial, with driving skill becoming nearly irrelevant on some circuits.

With new regulations set to be introduced next year with the purpose of making following cars easier, such critics hope that DRS will eventually be taken out, but Alonso does not believe that will happen.

He feels their system has improved the overall entertainment factor of the sport and that it will continue to be “useful” in the future.

“I don’t think so, I think we’ll always need it in Formula 1,” the Alpine driver said.

“I know that it provides some artificial overtaking sometimes at different circuits, but if we look back, when we didn’t have DRS, the races were much more boring. It was much more difficult to overtake.

“Formula 1 is not like other categories. I think in F1 you’re always struggling to follow closely enough because of the nature of the aerodynamics and how clever all the teams will always be to provide performance.

“So DRS is going to be useful tool, I think, even for the future.”

Given how difficult it is to follow in foul air and the larger nature of the cars, it has been nearly impossible for drivers to pull off overtakes without DRS in the hybrid era.

In an era of “brutal” Mercedes dominance, Alonso believes that the 2017 regulations, which introduced wider tyres and greater downforce, made matters even worse in that department.

He is confident, though, that the sport has learned from it and that the new rules enforced next year will result in improved on-track racing, as hoped.

“The Mercedes domination was brutal, in the first three or four years of the V6,” he added.

“And then, from 2017, when Formula 1 introduced the wider tyre and the bigger cars, I think that was a step backwards in terms of racing and being able to follow cars closer.

“We were missing a couple of things and F1 did learn from these experiences, and I think we’ll have a better 2022 championship.”

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