Formula One will not replace the Drag Reduction System until it has found another way to aid overtaking, says managing director for motorsport Ross Brawn.

Brawn told Business Life magazine that DRS will “continue in the short term”.

“My hope is that when we identify how the cars should evolve in the future, that may be a feature we can turn off. But I don’t see it disappearing in the near future. Its a necessary Band-Aid because of the nature of the cars at the moment.”

Formula One has begun studying how to improve the quality of racing by allowing the cars to run together more closely. Brawn says he wants to find a way to increase overtaking without using artificial devices like DRS.

“That’s our objective. And unlike the DRS, it won’t be a switch we turn on overnight, it will be an evolution of the cars. Each step we make has got to be in that direction.”

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“In other words we create a model, and that model means as you plug features in, you can see whether the raceability of the cars improves or deteriorates. And that model won’t only be an aerodynamic model, it will be a model that will have to include the tyre characteristics and engine characteristics and other factors on the car, where we put different elements in to help us understand whether what we are doing is making the racing better or worse.”

“And that’s something we’ve lacked. We’ve been using our intuition, and that’s not good enough now with the complexity of these cars.”

According to Pirelli there were 47% fewer overtaking moves last season compared to the year before following the introduction of higher-downforce cars.

The decrease in overtaking was accompanied by a fall in lap time, but Brawn said he’d be happy to see lower speeds if it meant better racing.

“The speed of the cars is important – these are the fastest racing cars in the world, and the fans want to feel that Formula One is the pinnacle. But tomorrow if I could trade five miles an hour from the top speed for better racing, I’d do it.”

2018 F1 season