Towards a Ban on DRS in the Raidillon?

As we announced yesterday – and as has since been confirmed by the FIA – the activation zone for the Drag Reduction System or DRS will be set after the climb of the Raidillon de l’Eau Rouge up until the braking at Les Combes. However, as with all Grand Prix since the start of the season, drivers will be able to activate this overtaking aid system at any time during the lap, whether during Free Practice or qualifying. The system plays a crucial role during qualifying, and drivers take advantage of every opportunity to activate it, even for a brief moment.

The Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) has therefore expressed concern over the possibility for drivers, at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, to activate the DRS in the Raidillon de l’Eau Rouge. Earlier in the season, the same concern led the FIA to ban the use of DRS in the Tunnel, and Charlie Whiting is considering the possibility of imposing the same restriction in the Eau Rouge.

Negotiated at nearly 300km/h, the Raidillon de l’Eau Rouge is considered the most spectacular corner of the season and one of the most demanding sequences in the world. Jacques Villeneuve often boasted of taking the Raidillon flat out, but he also paid the price with two violent off-track excursions in 1998 and 1999, as did his BAR teammate, Ricardo Zonta, who had an impressive flip. In 1993, Alessandro Zanardi was the victim of a major accident at this spot, sidelining him from the tracks until the end of the season. The following year, still marked by the memory of the Italian driver’s misadventure and traumatized by the Imola tragedy, the organizers improvised a chicane at the foot of the climb to reduce the speed of the cars, thus, according to purists, denaturing the most famous corner of the Ardennes circuit.

Vitantionio Liuzzi assures, however, that the situation is not as critical as in Monaco: « For us, it will be borderline with the DRS but the situation in the Monaco tunnel was a bit different. The reason why I had asked for its ban was because a wheel-to-wheel accident in the Tunnel could have been really dangerous. In Eau Rouge, it’s different: it’s in open air, there’s no ceiling, no pylons, so it will be a normal racing accident, like anywhere else. It’s an easier decision for the FIA because Monaco was a bit too dangerous. But I would take things as they come: I like challenges. »

Update: The FIA has officially banned the use of DRS in the Raidillon de l’Eau Rouge for the entire duration of the weekend.