F1 drivers are more or less unanimous in doing something about Turn 6 of the Australian GP circuit, especially on safety grounds.
Amid all the discussions about the penalty issued for Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in F1 Australian GP after his incident with Mercedes’ George Russell, the biggest takeaway was the barrier placed at Turn 6 at Albert Park circuit.
The way it is placed in a high-speed blind section on the gravel, any car that hits the barrier has bigger chance of bouncing back onto the circuit as it happened with Russell. The Brit was certainly scared about the incoming cars that could have hit him.
Already in the cool down room, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz noted about discussions regarding that from Australia’s drivers’ briefing. His colleagues concurred when asked about the same during this weekend’s Japanese GP recalling the discussions around it.
Most drivers are unanimous in doing something about the corner to improve safety. In fact, the FIA and the promoters of the grand prix are already in discussions to assess the corner and the changes that they can make without compromising the essence.
Here’s what the F1 drivers said –
Alexander Albon: “I think George mentioned it before, and Carlos, the exit kerb and the way that it’s angled to the wall, it tends to force drivers back onto the racing line. That’s one thing. It’s not a new thing. It happened last year. And it was brought up, but obviously maybe it’s down to the park or whatever. It wasn’t changed. And there’s also the kerb. There’s kind of a double-stepped kerb on the exit, and especially as we have these low cars now, everything we touch, we can use the first bit of kerb, but if you go too far across and you hit the second kind of ramp section, it forces the car into the air, so there’s two things that could be done better.”
George Russell: “The corner’s amazing, probably one of the best corners on that circuit, so I wouldn’t want to see that corner change, but it is true. If you hit that wall, you just bounce back into the track. So, you know, it’s not just that corner. I think all… all circuits that have the barriers in certain positions, if it’s going to propel you back onto the circuit, that’s obviously not good. And we don’t want to have big runoffs. We don’t want to have tarmac runoffs. You know, I think everything is correct. Just the position of that wall, even if it’s, you know, closer to the track, but in line with the circuit, at least you wouldn’t bounce off into the racing line.”
Sergio Perez: “It is a corner that doesn’t allow mistakes, I don’t have a problem with that. That is true there is no escape road in that corner, but I guess it has been there for a while. And although the corner has changed, remember Maldonado in 2012 had a crash there and always come back.”
Daniel Ricciardo: “I love that corner. It’s a really, really fun corner. In qualifying it’s downshift to sixth and pretty much get back to full throttle. So, it’s a ballsy corner. The only thing I don’t like about it is, as we’ve seen, if you crash, you come back onto the track. I don’t like that scenario, but from a pure driving experience, it’s an amazing corner. So, I don’t want that changed. But the safety of it is bad. Unfortunately, that is the sort of corner that is very vulnerable for a big incident, so if they have to change it and that’s the only way to get the safety from it then, OK yes, they should. But if they can make it safer but still keep the speed and everything of it then that’s my vote.”
Zhou Guanyu: “I think the corner is not that great, to be honest. It is a blind corner which is fine. The issue is the kerb, it is like the moment you go a little bit over that kerb, then your car, it bottom out and basically there is no room for you to take a wider line like maybe in Montreal, places like that, there is barrier and you don’t take that kerb, you either take it perfectly or you hit the barrier. So this is the layout of the corner, and I think then together with the blind corner, it is lucky that George had no one behind because otherwise if there was a car behind, you don’t have a place to avoid as it is instance.”
Oscar Piastri: “We had a little bit of a discussion… not last weekend, but in Melbourne prior to the 2024 event. Maybe there’s a couple of things that we could improve there a bit. We’ve seen quite a few accidents where cars have kind of been bounced back onto the track, which is something that we’ve spoken about, and I think it should be addressed. Maybe just the angle of the wall or potentially even the speed of the corner. It’s obviously quite a quick corner now. So, it is something that we have spoken about with the FIA. And we’ll see what comes. But yeah, there’s probably been now a few too many crashes with cars ending up in the middle of the track to not do something about it.”
Fernando Alonso: “I think that the big thing is Turn 6 in Australia. It is not the safest corner at the moment on that track. We saw an accident last year with Alex in the race, and this year in free practice where he damaged the chassis. Also in F2, I think Dennis [Hauger] crashed there as well. George obviously in the race. And that’s probably for me a more important point to change for next year than what the driver in front of me will be able to do or not do, as long as I don’t need to make an avoiding action or whatever to avoid him, which was not the case. That was my point after Australia, and still now. I will move on. I don’t want to speak too much on that.”
Nico Hulkenberg: “We have seen that in the corner last year with Alex who crashed there, that barrier puts the car back on the circuit which we need to look at that and change something there for the future because that’s really not good when you come around that corner and you have a car on the middle of the track.”
Briefing about happening in Australia –
Max Verstappen: “We had a short briefing. It’s good. No, I think everyone’s a bit tired. Yeah, tired of it!”
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