"I do not think that the overtaking manoeuvres are being taken seriously"
- GPblog.com
Norbert Haug apologises to all Formula 1 fans. He would like to see the DRS system disappear from the current Formula 1 cars, but admits that the arrival of DRS is partly his fault.
Not taken seriously
Especially after this year's races in Portugal and Turkey, the DRS system again attracted a lot of criticism. The faster cars that managed to go through the field quite easily. "I don't think the overtaking manoeuvres are being taken seriously", says Haug to Motorsport-Total.com. "As a driver, why should I try to overtake in turn X when I'm sure I'll succeed on the Y straight?"
"We are very experienced in racing. If someone with a reasonable distance on the straight is driving behind another car, everyone knows that the front car at the end of the straight no longer leads. I don't know how counterproductive that would be for the excitement," Haug continues.
Own fault
"It is partly my fault, I could not stop it," says Haug, who was still the technical director of Mercedes when the system was introduced. "DRS was introduced in my time in Formula 1."
The former Mercedes man says he has never met a DRS fan: "I was never a fan and as a real racer I still am not. Perhaps this can be taken into account in the future when new rules are introduced."