That’s because the placement of the chicane, and the tight sequence of corners around it, was effectively forced on organisers because of its geographical location under the Turnpike road bridges.
As the project’s lead design engineer Andrew Wallis put it, the layout had to “thread the needle” to satisfy FIA track safety regulations.
UK-based track specialists Apex Circuit Design laid out the 5.41-kilometre anti-clockwise circuit around the Hard Rock Stadium.
Its most sinuous section was Turns 13-16, which wound around the entrance and exit ramps and beneath the flyover sections of the Florida Turnpike and NW 203rd Street.
FIA regulations regarding clearance of overhead structures to the track surface meant the layout needed to dip beneath the two overpasses, shortly after rising 11 feet to cross the Southbound access ramp, creating a crest in the Turn 14-15 chicane.
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Race winner Max Verstappen commented: “I think if I would have been in a go-kart, it would be a nice chicane to take, but not in an F1 car like we have at the moment.”
Runner-up Charles Leclerc added: “I think I’m the only driver on the grid that actually liked this chicane. I enjoyed it.
Infrastructure around the circuit limited the track designers’ options
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“But on the other hand, I agree that for racing action, I think we can do something better because following wasn’t easy on that part, also for visibility it’s quite difficult once you have a car in front because you need to be so precise on the kerbs.”
Wallis told Autosport ahead of the event that “this whole sequence was a real engineering challenge”.
He said: “For us to get beneath the first overpass, we had to meet the FIA regulation that requires at least four metres of clearance, but as we have to tie into the levels of the Turnpike slip road that has a 7% crossfall, our track surface was climbing just at the…
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