2011 Chinese Grand Prix: KERS, DRS and Pirelli Make Racing Fun Again

Okay, pay attention. This is going to be difficult to write, and once it’s out, it’ll never be repeated.

The FIA got it right.

It’s a phrase that doesn’t get uttered often, if at all, but by some quirk of fate they have managed to bring in a number of innovations to Formula 1 racing that have actually contrived to make the sport better.

Yes, the key phrase in that previous sentence is contrived, but we’ll get to that later.

The triple combination of DRS, KERS and Pirelli’s self-shredding tyres actually delivered one of the most exciting races in living memory at the Grand Prix of China.

And it wasn’t just at the front of the race either; the racing was terrific throughout the field.  It was one of those races where there was way too much happening to be able to catch it all.

Staggeringly, the FIA even made the right decision to shorten the length of the DRS activation zone to prevent the advantage being too great, but somehow settled magically on a length that made it possible to pass if a driver did enough in the lead-up to the straight.

Throughout everything that was going on, there were also surprisingly few incidents that didn’t involve Sergio Perez. It was a stunning endorsement of the skills of these drivers that despite some of the closest racing in years, complete with some very exciting overtaking moves, they managed to keep it clean when it counted.

Scything his way through the lot of them was Mark Webber, who, after starting in 18th place and dropping to 20th after his first stop, managed to produce a miracle drive and deliver a completely unexpected podium finish.

It is testament to the speed of the Red Bulls that he was able to achieve this.

It makes you wonder how different the result would have been had his team been able to read the signs on the correct tyre strategy for Sebastian Vettel or if the mechanics had been able to produce a mechanically sound car for Webber's qualifying.

McLaren got it right, despite a frantic race against the clock to fix a fuel leak that developed during the installation lap. They got Lewis Hamilton out on the track to form up for the start of the race with seconds to spare, and bits of bodywork missing.

The team then managed to get it all together again, and make the right tyre choices to deliver Hamilton a hard-earned victory.

The stars of the show, however, were Pirelli’s rather odd tyres. They are quite unlike anything we’ve seen in the sport for some time—indeed, the harder tyre is impossible to tell apart from the soft tyre, except that it’s a full second-per-lap slower.

The hard compound doesn’t last any longer either, which is a head-scratcher, and makes the FIA’s ongoing obsession with using both compounds even more confusing.

The performance profile of these tyres is also quite staggering. There is no gradual degradation; they are fine right up to the moment when they’re not. The current description of choice is that they fall off a cliff, and so do the lap times.

Tyre management strategy is rapidly emerging as one of the key elements for success in the 2011 season.

So, if the racing is great and the excitement levels are up—what’s the problem?

For the purists, it all seems a little contrived (see, we got back there eventually) and that all of this gimmickry is taking the place of racing skill and great car design. But is it?

Certainly, the DRS, KERS and eccentric tyres—tyres that perform exactly as the teams requested, it must be noted—are all working to improve the sport. But they are only there to make up for deficiencies that have been known to race fans for years.

For too long, the sport has been ruled by wind tunnels and computerised modelling that produces cars with staggering aerodynamic grip, but are almost impossible to follow.

Solve that problem and we can return to real racing.

Apart from that, F1 is full of contrivances. The technical regulations that govern every facet of a car’s design require a team of professionals including and engineer, a lawyer and a tarot card reader to interpret.

Odd, and often counterintuitive, restrictions are put in place to contain the speed of the car and take away performance, so why not throw in the odd thing that actually improves the sport?

The bottom line is that for the first season in many we have great racing. Not just a great championship battle evolving through largely processional races, but actual on-track battles throughout the field.

And we shouldn’t look the proverbial gift horse in the mouth; just enjoy it for as long as it lasts. Who knows how long it will last.

Plus, the FIA will almost certainly find a way to mess it up soon anyway.