Max Verstappen has spoken up for the Spa circuit in Belgium which has faced criticism over its safety standards since the death of Dilano Van ’T Hoff last weekend.
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 haven’t really thought it through entirely, but I’m not yet convinced that Raidillon isn’t a bit unique due to:
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.