I see it as a small flap that opens up and it speeds up the cars by a large margin. How does something so small like a flap provide that much of a boost?
In: Engineering
Can you provide an example of what “such a large margin” means to you?
A typical F1 car can do over 200 mph on a straightaway. The use of the DRS increases top speed by maybe 10 mph at most – which is a 5% increase.
In any case, the reason it can provide even that much of a benefit is just that it’s impossible for the wing to produce downforce without producing drag. The limitation on F1 cars’ top speed is aerodynamics — which is true for pretty much everything that goes fast. You need the downforce from the wing during maneuvering, not on straightaways, so the ability to modify the aerodynamics to reduce drag when you don’t need the downforce to corner is a huge benefit.
One reason it might look like a bigger boost in absolute terms than it actually is, is that F1 cars are at most 5.63 meters long. If you get a 10 mph boost from deploying DRS, and you were already right behind another driver, that allows you to travel their entire car length in 1.26 seconds (10 mph = 4.47 m/s). So to go from right behind them to right in front of them only takes twice that – 2.5 seconds.
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