• Red Bull news

Webber wants DRS qualifying changes

Mark Webber says a number of crashes are caused by drivers opening the DRS too early during practice © Sutton Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• In Focus:
• DRS

• Drivers:
• Mark Webber

• Teams:
• Red Bull

Mark Webber says that "the drivers are almost unanimous" in wanting DRS usage to be restricted during practice and qualifying.

Webber crashed during practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix earlier this year, wiping the nose off his Red Bull after activating the DRS too early on the exit of a corner. With Bruno Senna doing the same thing later in the season at Suzuka, and a number of other drivers having incidents as a result of opening the wing too early during practice, Webber wrote in his BBC column that the current rules need to be changed.

"There's plenty to go into over the winter and part of the discussion will be a change the drivers would like to see," Webber said. "At the moment, in the race you can only use the DRS in the designated zones - and then only if you are within a second of the car in front at the 'detection point'. But in practice and qualifying you can use it whenever you like.

"That has led to a few incidents this year where people have gone off because they were pushing the boundaries of using the DRS. Renault's Bruno Senna had a crash in Suzuka, I had one on Friday in Hungary, and one of my team-mate Sebastian Vettel's practice crashes was caused by that, too."

Webber said that the system didn't need to be restricted to just the race zone, but that activation should be limited to pre-designated straights, with a zone again marked out to prevent drivers opening the wing when exiting a corner in order to find time.

"The drivers are almost unanimous that they would prefer the use of DRS outside of a race to be limited - to just the DRS zone and perhaps a couple of key straights, plus a restriction on the point at which you deploy it so you're not too close to the exit of a corner. DRS has been a successful device for what it was intended for - racing on Sundays."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.