Fans react strongly to the Adjustable Rear Wing reality

We've had a strong reaction from readers to the story I posted yesterday about the Drag Reduction System (DRS) or adjustable rear wing.

Up until now the DRS has been a concept and more recently an item on the cars during test sessions. But as the racing season comes into view Charlie Whiting's comments on the way the system will work have drawn many fans to feel negative about the idea. But there are also some who feel that the system should be given a chance.

Here are two posts from readers, which I feel articulate the debate and deserve a wider audience.

Tom Mitchell speaks for many when he says,

"If most other fans were in favour of DRS, then fine. But reading here, it seems that practically nobody is. Whitmarsh et al will say that they are listening, like when he said that if it doesn’t work then they will remove it. But what he doesn’t get is that we don’t want it to work – because that would mean they’ve successfully made the racing artificial.

"Now there is a clear distinction between real fans and those they’re aiming to please with DRS. The former are people like those on this website, who have been watching F1 through the good and bad. The latter are people who know nothing about F1 (aka ‘new markets’), and I suspect are those who we all know; “the only good bits are the crashes” type people. Now I have nothing against new people becoming fans, but not at the very clear expense and anger of the loyal fans, who the F1 insiders clearly do not give a damn about and take for granted."

However Sebee argues that, as with many innovations in F1, it needs to be given time,"I applaud the FIA for at least trying something for 2011. For years we the fans complain that lack of passing is an issue, now we have the DRS, KERS and fragile tires. All the driver aids over the years have resulted in cruise control racing over the years – I’m all for well thought out variables being brought into the mix. You accept automatic paddle shifting gear boxes now, weren’t they a gimmick at some point? Will anyone here seriously argue that their introduction took away from the spectacle, the driver skill, and most importantly passing opportunities? Since manual gear boxes aren’t a realistic option in F1 today – DRS and KERS it is.

Also, James is right that he’s reserving judgment, but perhaps is viewing it with questions and wishes to be proved wrong.

Let’s let a few races take place and see what they came up with. I recall some major UK newspaper declaring that you should put down a layer of paint next to your TV in 2010 because it’s more interesting to watch it dry than F1 will be after Bahrain. We could discuss if it was pure or due to peripherals(as per Fan’s view back a few months), but whatever your conclusion – you can hardly say 2010 was a boring show.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Give 2011 spec a chance. If it doesn’t work, will it really be that hard to remove DRS and KERS from the cars? I think not.

Now, someone please show me photos of F1 hardware arriving in Australia. I’m developing an anxiety twitch."