After a delay to the new regulations and cars because of the pandemic, 2022 is set to see a huge overhaul in the sport as attempts are made to bring the teams closer together and give the fans more wheel-to-wheel racing.  

Fernando Alonso has vast experience of racing with and without DRS. The overtaking aid was introduced 10 years ago as it was extremely difficult for drivers to pass each other. 

The Spaniard knows more than most about it as he couldn’t pass Vitaly Petrov at the final race of the 2010 season when going for the championship. 

Alonso believes F1 will need it in the future as well as the sport is not like other categories due to its uniqueness. 

“I don’t think so, I think we’ll always need it [DRS] in Formula 1,” Alonso said to Motorsport.com. 

“I know that it provides some artificial overtaking sometimes at different circuits. 

“But if we look back, when we didn’t have DRS, the races were much more boring. It was much more difficult to overtake. 

“Formula 1 is not like other categories. I think in F1 you’re always struggling to follow closely enough because of the nature of the aerodynamics and how clever all the teams will always be to provide performance. 

“So DRS is going to be useful tool, I think, even for the future.” 

The two-time World Champion believes the domination of Mercedes from 2014-2016 and the big regulation change to wider cars from 2017 hasn’t been helpful to the V6 era.  

“The Mercedes domination was brutal, in the first three or four years of the V6,” Alonso said. 

“And then, from 2017, when Formula 1 introduced the wider tyre and the bigger cars, I think that was a step backwards in terms of racing and being able to follow cars closer. 

“We were missing a couple of things [compared to the past] and F1 did learn from these experiences, and I think we’ll have a better 2022 championship.”