The Yas Marina circuit was extensively overhauled two years ago in the hope of aiding overtaking and making its Formula 1 race, usually the season-closer, less processional.
The alterations involved removing several slow corners and replacing them with simpler and less tight bends. While they were generally well-received, the two races held since then indicate they haven’t radically changed how easily drivers can race at the circuit.
Speaking after yesterday’s qualifying session the two drivers who occupy the front row of the grid offered similar views on what change the track still needs.
“The only thing I would like to change is just the off-camber corners,” said pole winner Max Verstappen. “I think that doesn’t really help the racing.
“A bit more banked corners would help. Around the hotel they need to bank that instead of being off-camber. Turn seven, the little crest, it always throws you off a little bit. Especially when you’re behind, you just lose a lot of traction, so that corner also just bank it a bit. That would help.”
Charles Leclerc agreed. “It’s very difficult to follow in those off-camber corners,” said the Ferrari driver. “During qualifying, as soon as you get it wrong but even by five or 10 centimetres that has huge consequences, which I like it in qualifying but I agree with Max that for the race I don’t think that’s great because you struggle a lot to follow in those corners.”
He would also like to see changes to the off-camber corners. “I think it would be nice,” said Leclerc, “it will definitely help racing. It’s a track where there’s already quite a lot of overtaking opportunities, but definitely that will make it even better.”
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They are not the first drivers to express this view. Before the track was overhauled drivers like Esteban Ocon pointed to the off-camber corners as a reason why racing has been poor at the circuit. So why weren’t they changed when the opportunity arose two years ago?
Most of the off-camber corners are clustered around the end of the lap, from turns 12 to 14, where the track winds beneath the Yas Viceroy hotel. Those corners were widened and made faster when the track was revised in 2021.
Driven International, the designers behind the changes, did examine the possibility of easing…
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