FIA say Silverstone DRS zone crashes were "driver choice"

Charlie Whiting has claimed the crashes inside the extra DRS zone at Silverstone were due to driver choice. The new DRS zone was announced a week before the Grand Prix and included two flat-out corners.

The zone started on the pit straight, running through turn 1 and turn 2. It was part of two big crashes during the F1 weekend. Romain Grosjean was a victim in practice, while Marcus Ericsson followed suit in the race.

Hamilton labelled the extra DRS zone as a "pointless exercise" and "just dangerous." Whiting had other ideas.

"I think the incidents where drivers lost control through turn 1 because they had their DRS open through turn 1 is driver choice, just like any choice you make on a car," Whiting said in an interview on motorsport.

"It's like any car that is challenging to drivers, and sometimes they try to do it flat when it's not really flat, and they spin."

The DRS zone was implemented to aid overtaking. A series of extra zones have been added to tracks on the calendar this season to help increase the number of overtakes.

However, the racing director said after analysing the results that it didn't help at all.

"I don't think it actually helped. The idea was that drivers might get a little bit closer than they would have done otherwise, and therefore be in a better position to attack on the straights between turns 5 and 6," Whiting added.

Whiting then went on to confirm Hockenheim will have an added DRS zone and an extended version of previous zones. 

"One extra, on the pit straight, with one detection for the pit straight and the run from Turn 1 to 2, and the main one going down into Turn 6 will be a bit longer."