KERS, DRS, Pirelli: Which change is more decisive in the 2011 Formula 1 season?
The answer to that question is by far the Pirelli tyres, although the Drag Reduction System and Kinetic Energy Recovery System are the sidekick in 2011 cars.
The 2011 Formula 1 season started in the most unexpected fashion because the teams have bowed down to the Pirelli tyres for their winning hopes. The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) induced innovations like the KERS and DRS are still not the
only decisive factor for winning races.
Starting with the DRS or movable rear wing, although the DRS system has been used in many overtaking manoeuvres in recent races, yet the main drama is created by the Pirelli tyres. DRS can be used in a certain straight of the track and only by the chasing
car. It reduces the drag on the car by opening a wing on the rear wing assembly. Plenty of overtaking has been witnessed in the recent races and drivers have used it frequently to overcome the speed element of some of the competitive cars.
The KERS system is almost like carrying extra luggage in the car. It weighs around 30 pounds and gives a boost of around 80 horsepower, only for about 3 to 4 seconds. KERS generates energy by storing the heat energy that is generated when brakes are used
on slow turns. It stores the energy in the battery or flywheel. It has not been as beneficial as the DRS system, but still it can cut down an extra tenth of a second in the Qualifiers timings. KERS best use is to defend the position from the chasing car. It
can be used anywhere on the track in the race and Qualifiers.
The best part of the car is the Pirelli tyres. The new Pirelli tyres have quickly become the pinnacle of Formula 1 race winning strategies. Pirelli have introduced six types of tyres out of which only two are used most frequently by the teams. The soft and
the hard compound are the best combination in the Qualifiers and the race.
As the tyres behave differently, it becomes crucial to decide as to which compound of tyres will be used at which part of the race. The soft compound degrades more than the hard ones but gives good speed over a short period of time, 12 to 13 laps. Soft compound
is mostly used in the Qualifiers to give maximum amount of speed required to win the pole position.
The hard Pirelli tyres are better for long stints but as they degrade, the car speed is reduced drastically, as was the case of Sebastian Vettel in his RB7 in the Chinese Grand Prix. Hard tyres are normally being put on by the driver in the last stint of
the race when he only needs to retain his position until the chequered flag.
The new kind of strategy was introduced accidentally by the Red Bull team when they sent out Mark Webber on the hard Pirelli compound in the Chinese Qualifiers. Mark qualified in the lower ranks in 18th position but finished
third in the race. Webber commented that it was better to save the tyres in the Qualifiers and use them in the race where it mattered more.
Let’s see what impact do all of these three crucial elements have on the remainder of the 2011 Formula 1 season.
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