Carlos Sainz Jnr is concerned the angle of the first corner at the Autodromo do Algarve will make it difficult to avoids collisions at the start of the race.
The right-handed first corner at the track has already been the scene of one collision this weekend, when Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll tangled during Friday’s second practice session.Sainz said the low grip levels at the track and the quick first corner will make for an unpredictable start.
“It didn’t feel great out there in the practice starts we did,” said Sainz. “We haven’t done many and the measured grip is pretty low.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. Especially that turn one, it’s asking for some accidents the angle of the corner, how fast the guys on the outside will approach it and how slow the guys on the inside and with which angle we will approach it.
Lower temperatures are expected for the race and there is some risk of rain, though most forecasts indicate it won’t fall until after the chequered flag. Sainz is less concerned by that than the increasingly strong wind, which McLaren’s car is very sensitive to.
“All the unknowns regarding tyres, strategy, normally we are pretty good reacting to that,” said Sainz. “The only negative is the wind is going to pick it up. But if it rains and it’s windy, I don’t mind.”
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Sham (@sham)
25th October 2020, 11:30
I agree with him – turn 1 has the potential for drama, which is great for the racing – maybe the best drivers in the world will be able to avoid causing a safety car. Maybe they will have the common sense to know that in a long race, there is no sense in throwing it away with a stupid move in turn 1.
But since Carlos didn’t even have the sense to back off when off the track entirely in Sochi, it doesn’t inspire much hope.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
25th October 2020, 12:55
The problem is that if there is an incident at turn 1 where someone ends up stuck in the gravel, there will be a safety car by turn 4.
Its my biggest bug bear of modern F1. At least let them get to the last corner and actually give us the spectacle of an opening lap. Totally ruins the excitement of the start of a race.
Jonathan Parkin
25th October 2020, 14:07
Yes why do they do that? For a Turn 1 incident I would always wait until the field is at the last corner before deciding to deploy a Safety Car
Chaitanya
25th October 2020, 11:31
Its going to be a chaotic race especially with all the blind corners.
KaIIe (@kaiie)
25th October 2020, 11:56
So half the field will run wide (like in Sochi) to avoid accidents.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
25th October 2020, 11:59
I’m really glad they are using this configuration of Turn 1 rather than the tighter chicane.
The fast version they are using is a much better, Trickier flick of a corner while the slow chicane config just ruins the flow of the first few corners & is in general just an awful corner which isn’t especially fun to watch cars driving through.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
25th October 2020, 12:17
It is Sainz jnr we are talking about… I’m sure he has caused more start mistakes than any other driver combined, even Romain.
Frankly he hasn’t had any thing good to say about this weekend either. Probably discrimination.
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
25th October 2020, 12:35
I think it will be more of a problematic place during the race than at the start when people are usually more careful, but we’ll see.
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
25th October 2020, 12:40
And for what it’s worth, I think racing wise the tighter Bahrain-like version of turn 1 would have been much betted than this fast one, and would have eliminated the track limits question and the chance of big fast accidents. Oh well.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
25th October 2020, 13:03
@hunocsi I think what we have here is much better corner. the Bahrain style horrible slow hairpin/chicane would have been horrible.
i’d rather see more corners like the fast turn 1 they are using and less horrible slow, fiddly tight chicanes/hairpins that are horrible to watch cars driving through, far too many awful corners like that on modern circuits with many great corners been ruined by them (variante alta as we will see at imola next weekend been one example, a once great little flick over the kerbs that is now a horrible nothing slow/tight chicane).
Dave
28th October 2020, 9:16
Turn 1 = Ramp