Will Madring give us a Demolition Derby this weekend?

[John S]

Will we get Red Flag chaos in multiple sessions, or are the Worlds best drivers likely to make a better job than the F3 teams last month? 

When F3 headed to the Madring for an official test last month, some team owners and sponsors will have likely scratched their heads. The end result was 19 red flags, including a number of significant crashes that drove up the accident bills.

As is always the case with any new circuit, the grip levels will be extremely low in year one. But Madring's hybrid of public roads and bespoke high-speed sections with little runoff area could well lead to a chaotic weekend.

A lot of attention will go to the Madring's headline feature, the steeply banked La Monumental curve and is a lot more complex than it first seems, with its varying radii and elevation changes.

But the corners right before and after the impressive Turn 12 are also extremely tricky, with plenty of exit walls that come back into the track rather than fade away. With so many unknowns, there is every chance the first running of the event could become a messy one.

"I think definitely with the way they've put the barriers and the design of the track, it's going to be one of the biggest challenges in Formula 1 recently," said Carlos Sainz, who is an ambassador for the event.

"The track reminds me a lot of Jeddah, reminds me a lot of Baku, even reminds me a bit of Macau in some ways. So having that in an F1 car with 1,000 horsepower is going to be quite an interesting challenge."

Sainz was aware of what happened in the F3 test and was under no illusion that the Madring could be a recipe for chaos, both in qualifying with drivers searching for the limit millimetres away from the walls, and the omnipresent threat of impeding incidents.

"I've been looking at the track and hearing of what happened in the F3 test,” he added. “I think we are all expecting safety cars and red flags and yellow flags in qualifying and things like this.

“It's been a tendency of Formula 1 to go to these kinds of tracks like Jeddah and Baku recently, that are closer to the city, Miami, but they have more walls and we haven't had any issues with it."

Above article courtesy Filip Cleeren on Motorsport.com, Weds 9th Sept.

[Alianora La Canta]

I hope it's not a demolition derby. Between:

- the lack of runoff in critical places
- the reliance on barriers that in some places aren't even up yet
-a recent reminder that the current engine regulations are dangerous in their current configuration
- the suspicion that Charles Leclerc may have additional vulnerability to concussion, despite passing all medical tests so far
- the fact one of the circuit doctors told a forum (which Marca magazine attended) some privacy-violating information about one of the F1 drivers that also reflected badly on their fitness to practice medicine…

I am very worried. I just hope everyone gets through this safe and healthy.