Quite a measured response from Max. There are more dangerous corners, and there are questions about restarting a race with such poor visibility.
I haven’t really thought it through entirely, but I’m not yet convinced that Raidillon isn’t a bit unique due to:
- It’s tendency to bounce you back onto the track if you forcefully run wide (which alone isn’t unique but combined with…)
- Being a very long very high-speed straight that basically runs from the exit of turn one through the end of the kemmel straight.
Street tracks will bounce you back into traffic, but do any street tracks feature the top speeds seen 30%-50% down the kemmel straight? I haven’t done the research here but feel like street tracks manage top-speeds pretty carefully and the kemmel straight may be unique in its combination of speed and a tendency to bounce crashed cars onto the racing line.
But the other side of this is clearly visibility in the wet. Modern wet weather tyres are capable of providing grip in conditions where visibility makes racing too dangerous which is a scary problem on all tracks that needs to be managed.
I think they are addressing this in a test post-Silverstone.
Yeah, they’re testing rainguards: https://us.motorsport.com/f1/news/fia-trial-wheel-arches-wet-test-silverstone/10489717/
I’m cautiously optimistic.
Headline is probably clickbaity, and I dont want to read RaceFans, but its probably Max being an ass, which he is. However he is right.
Just shows my bias but man, when I saw the headline I was hoping he was making a political statement about racing in Saudi Arabia but that would be quite out of character
When an oil depot gets blown up a handful of miles from a track and the race still goes ahead you know Saudi Arabia will keep it’s f1 race for a while yet. It would be interesting to see the amounts paid by the race organisers to host. Presumably Abu Dhabi are top due to hosting the final race of the season.
