Alfa Romeo reveal FIA Imola DRS request

Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo reveal FIA Imola DRS request

DRS was not enabled until lap 34 despite all drivers fitting slick tyres by lap 20

Sam Hall

Wednesday 27 April 2022 16:00

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Alfa Romeo head of track engineering Xevi Pujolar has revealed the team questioned the FIA over the frustrating delay to DRS being enabled at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

The Imola race began in damp conditions but within just a handful of laps, the spray had abated and a dry line had begun to form.

At the end of lap 17, Daniel Ricciardo was the first driver to switch from intermediates to slick tyres, with the rest of the field also making the change by lap 20.

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Despite this, DRS remained unavailable to drivers until lap 34 by which time the circuit was almost completely dry.

With Guanyu Zhou stuck behind Williams driver Nicholas Latifi in 16th, Pujolar revealed: "We were asking them actually because they will do it when they think it is safe enough to have the DRS open.

“But obviously, for us, because we were stuck behind Latifi, we were saying ‘The drivers are saying it is good enough. Can we have the DRS?’."

FIA delay costs Zhou

Although Zhou was able to pass Latifi soon after the FIA had enabled the drag reduction system, the Chinese driver struggled to make further progress with his tyres too damaged from following the Williams driver for a sustained period.

“Eventually, we got the DRS but obviously, when you are fighting behind another guy and pushing trying to keep close, by the time we got the DRS and overtook him, the tyres had taken a hit already and we had to just manage his tyres to the end so that was not ideal," explained Pujolar.

“Because I think we had good pace as well on Zhou’s car and had potential to recover further positions.”