We are almost half a year into the implementation of iGP Manager's W2W mode, which completely changed the gameplay to a more realistic and somewhat strategic approach. However, it has also turned something meant to be an aid into a problem that is causing a lot of damage: DRS. This post aims to highlight all the flaws that W2W has brought regarding DRS—which currently outweigh the benefits—and what solutions can be implemented to improve races and adapt them to W2W.
Disadvantages
1. The Cycling Race Syndrome
This is perhaps the most severe flaw of DRS right now: Nobody wants to lead until the final lap. Currently, everyone has opted to race at PL3 or lower for almost the entire GP and only accelerate in the DRS zone to gain the DRS advantage. This causes the entire pack to stay bunched up, and nobody tries to push hard to avoid being left vulnerable. On a straight, the leader can easily lose up to 7 positions if left exposed as the DRS target, and if rivals are cleared using Kers, the leader is left vulnerable for the end. Before, everyone sought to lead to pull away and build a gap; nowadays, everyone wants to stay behind the pack to ensure they can fight until the end. This also ruins the purpose of warming up the tires for better performance, since everyone drives so close and slow that they can freeze the tires and still stay in the fight, whereas before, a frozen tire meant radical time loss.
2. The Uselessness of Pole Position
Previously, starting on pole position secured 50% of the race; with a good strategy and clean air, you were guaranteed a top 5 finish, which motivated managers to learn how to develop their car for each track. Today, pole position is the biggest handicap of all, as clean air provides zero advantage. Adding to this, DRS is now activated on lap 2 instead of lap 3, leaving no chance to at least build a 1-second cushion using Kers, as you are already a sitting duck for the rival. This has led to everyone using the exact same starting strategy or launching on the worst tire instead of seeking pole with different tire strategies, leading to the next problem.
3. Zero Strategic Variety to Maintain DRS
As stated before, everyone runs the same strategy from the start, as nobody wants to be left vulnerable due to a tire that yields no actual advantage in clean air. Today, everyone looks to start on the same compound, the Medium, to always stay in the DRS train, which is killing strategic variety. On top of that, everyone pits on the same lap because they are afraid of losing time by attempting an overcut, fitting the exact same tire out of fear of a different strategy. Whoever pits later is exposed, because as soon as their tires are better, they will always overtake the group and gift them DRS. Furthermore, whoever runs more stops will always be at a disadvantage against someone who has a DRS ally to get that extra boost, even if running a faster compound, unless they have someone to lean on for DRS. Where is the strategy in a strategy game if everyone must do the same thing to succeed? The fun of trying something different is lost because there is only one way to win, and it depends more on the luck of starting the last lap in second place to grab the DRS and win.
4. Zero Power of Clean Air
In the past, even with cars clipping through each other, many looked to pit early to find a pocket of clean air, knowing this would give them an advantage to recover and break away without so much struggle. Dirty air was noticeable, and that drove everyone to move up positions by any means necessary. Today, clean air seems non-existent; leading yields no advantage, starting in clean air yields no advantage, and it even seems dirty air doesn't exist either—there is only DRS. Before, dirty air overheated tires and clean air cooled them down; today, the effect is almost negligible.
Advantages
1. Facilitating Overtaking Without Kers
This is a catch-22, because while DRS does benefit overtaking without Kers, it carries a year-long problem: Everyone saves Kers for the last lap. Still, it remains its biggest advantage—you can overtake rivals without having to use Kers.
Realistically, the advantages are almost non-existent compared to the disadvantages.
Proposals to Improve the System:
1. Complete Removal of DRS: The most practical and simple solution.
If they remove DRS, whoever starts on pole won't feel at a disadvantage, whoever leads can comfortably extend the gap or maintain their pace without feeling they will be hunted down by DRS, whoever attempts an overcut won't feel their strategy was ruined by going faster than everyone else and giving DRS to the rival, and whoever runs multi-stop strategies won't feel DRS ruined everything because their tires can actually be faster. This would also give more purpose to rechargeable Kers for overtaking, as one of the ways to pass would be using Kers on straights or side-by-side in corners.
2. Do not remove DRS, but reduce its impact, increase the benefit of clean air, and increase the impact of dirty air.
If removing DRS is too chaotic for many, or if they fear it and cling to DRS out of habit, make it so it is no longer a pure advantage, but rather something to "stay in the battle" without guaranteeing a win. Let DRS be a tool to save some Kers, but if you are not within 0.4s of the rival, make the overtake impossible. Additionally, make fighting another car in dirty air hurt lap times and overheat the tire, while driving alone in clean air helps cool the tire and go faster.
To this, I would add that, if possible, the game engine should restrict DRS only to those on the leader's lap. That is, a system that detects that whoever is in P3 can only get DRS from whoever is ahead of them in actual position, so users stop exploiting DRS from lapped cars to escape.
Personally, the first recommendation solves all problems and makes the wheel-to-wheel system plus rechargeable Kers more competitive; people will no longer kill each other for DRS, but will fight to move forward instead. The second option works better for those clinging to DRS, but adapts it to the new system.