After every Formula 1 race, driver Jeroen Bleekemolen shares his findings in an exclusive column for Formule1.nl. Who or what caught his attention, what went well, and what needs to change? This time: fun that Madring, but action is required to be able to overtake more. And there is a solution for that.
What sticks after a weekend like this in Madrid, on a new circuit like the Madring? I have mixed feelings, fifty-fifty. Because on the one hand, we really shouldn’t underestimate what they have created there in Madrid with this track and everything that comes with it. That banked corner, for example, looks great. But sometimes the circuit felt like a roller coaster, as if you were watching the Python at the Efteling.
Main conclusion: there is a layout that has clearly shown that you can hardly or not at all overtake. And that is underestimated by the designers. The only solution is to involve the drivers, they know what they are talking about and so you must ask them for advice.
They will surely do that in Spain, I am convinced. You really can’t do otherwise, because there must be two or three places created to overtake. Just ask people like Max Verstappen for their vision, their opinion. Or Lando Norris. Or someone else. Those guys really want to share their view, they really want to help. They already indicated that themselves on Sunday.
You could also somewhat predict that there wouldn’t be much overtaking in the F1 race. If anything happened this weekend, it was for example due to driver errors. But apart from that, you could already see in Formula 3 (boring race on Sunday morning) and also Formula 2 which way overtaking in Formula 1 would go.
The big problem on this circuit is that there aren’t enough straight sections where you can outbrake someone at the end. On the Madring, you have many points where you have to start steering while still braking, and going side by side just doesn’t work then.
So there is definitely work to be done. So just ask those drivers for their suggestions. Because it looks nice, but something needs to happen to get good races at the Madring. Just call Max, Lando, and others. The organization can surely find their numbers.
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