Last year, the second of the two DRS activation points was 347 meters after Turn 20, the last corner on the long main straight leading to Baku.

For 2023, the race director’s track map shows that point has now been moved back 100m after Turn 20 to 447m, effectively reducing the distance over which drag reduction systems can be used on the main straight.

The detection point remains at the same position at the apex of Turn 20, as does the first DRS area from Turn 2.

Baku, the fourth of five F1 circuits, has seen tweaks to the DRS zone to fine-tune the balance between improving performance and making overtaking too insignificant.

Changes have also been made in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Australia, with further tweaks set for next week’s Miami Grand Prix.

In Jeddah, the final activation point was moved to avoid dangerous antics in the final corner as the driver tried to deliberately let his opponent pass, while in Melbourne a fourth DRS zone was added to allow for overtaking on the twisty park circuit more reasonable.

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL36, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13

Photography: Mark Sutton/ motorsport pictures

After last year’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, it was thought that Baku’s long straights and DRS setup made overtaking F1’s 2022 next-generation cars too easy.

The shortening of the Baku DRS zone is in line with comments made by former F1 director Ross Brawn in the off-season about F1’s efforts to achieve a balance in overtaking.

“One thing we know is the fans, and we know this because we don’t like it, they don’t like ‘go straight, pop DRS, overtake, go fast, open the gap’ all that,” Brown said in a statement for F1 Motorsport. told Autosport at the end of his tenure as general manager.

“In an ideal world, DRS would just be used to attack someone in the back, so you could actually put in a decent attack.”

He added: “I don’t think we should be afraid to reduce DRS in a place like Monza because it does look a little bit ‘you sit behind them, press a button, pass.'” It’s a bit of a ceremony, isn’t it?

“So we shouldn’t be afraid to reduce the use of DRS because it’s clearly proven to be too powerful.”

The Baku City Circuit has also resurfaced ahead of the sixth round at turns 16 to 13.