The DRS, stewards and track limits details for F1 Turkish GP is out as Juri Vips becomes AlphaTauri/Red Bull reserve, while new Qualifying Pace TV graphic is launched.
The Intercity Istanbul Park circuit will feature two DRS zones for this weekend’s F1 Turkish GP – which is returning for the first time since 2011 – with the first detection point being 82 meters before Turn 9 and activation being 82 meters before Turn 11.
At the same time, the second detection point is 33 meters before Turn 13 and activation being 69 meters after Turn 14. The pitlane speed limiter is set at 80 km/hr, with 58 laps to run on a re-laid surfaced for the F1 grand prix’s return.
The four stewards for the F1 Turkish GP are Gerd Ennser, Dennis Dean, Derek Warwick and Faith Altyali, who will be representing as the National Steward. On the track limits side, the FIA Race Director Michael Masi has noted Turn 1 and Turn 14 predominantly.
The Turn 9 run-off movement is also noted, especially for re-joining efforts. The FIA F1 race director’s note states:
Turn 1 – Exit:
a) A lap time achieved during any practice session or the race by leaving the track on the exit of Turn 1, will result in that lap time being invalidated by the stewards.
Turn 14 – Exit:
a) A lap time achieved during any practice session or the race by leaving the track on the exit of Turn 14, will result in that lap time and the immediately following lap time being invalidated by the stewards.
General – Turn 1 Exit and Turn 14 Exit:
a) A driver will be judged to have left the track if no part of the car remains in contact with the track.
b) Each time any car fails to negotiate Turn 1 Exit or Turn 14 Exit by using the track, teams will be informed via the official messaging system.
c) On the third occasion of a driver failing to negotiate Turn 1 Exit and/or Turn 14 Exit by using the track during the race, he will be shown a black and white flag, any further cutting will then be reported to the stewards. For the avoidance of doubt this means a total of three occasions combined not three at each corner.
d) In all cases detailed above, the driver must only re-join the track when it is safe to do so and without gaining a lasting advantage.
e) The above requirements will not automatically apply to any driver who is judged to have been forced off the track, each such case will be judged individually.
Turn 9 – Run Off:
a) For reasons of safety, each time any car fails to negotiate Turn 9 by using the track, and who passes to the right of, or has any part of the car over the first yellow bump element behind the apex kerb, must then re-join the track by driving around the orange bollard at the end of the bump across the run-off area before the rejoining the track at the exit of Turn 9.
Here’s Turn 9 photo from FIA F1:
Juri Vips named F1 Turkish GP reserve of AlphaTauri and Red Bull:
Ahead of the start of the F1 Turkish GP weekend, both AlphaTauri and Red Bull revealed academy driver, Vips, as the reserve for the weekend, with both Sergio Sette Camara and Sebastien Buemi not available due to prior commitments.
Camara is competing in Super Formula in Japan at Autopolis, while Buemi is racing with Toyota in the season-finale of WEC in Bahrain. This left both AlphaTauri and Red Bull without a reserve, as they brought in Vips, to replace the two drivers.
The Estonian got his superlicense just before the race weekend after he completed 300 km quota in a Red Bull F1 car earlier in the week. The test took place – reportedly – on November 9 after Vips returned to Europe from Japan, skipping Super Formula again.
Team Mugen replaced Vips with Ukyo Sasahara, after the Estonian already missed several of the Super Formula rounds earlier in the season due to COVID-19 restrictions. The revised rule from the FIA helped the Red Bull junior to get his F1 superlicense.
Vips was seen during the track walk at Istanbul Park alongside Alexander Albon. The timing of taking him as a reserve comes as a surprise as Red Bull is to finalise on the two remaining F1 seats for 2021, with Yuki Tsunoda in prime contention at AlphaTauri.
Much will also depend on Albon’s future, who is under threat, primarily from outside-the-programme drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez. If he is dropped, he could join Daniil Kvyat, Tsunoda and (maybe) Vips in the line for the second AlphaTauri F1 seat.
New TV graphic from Turkish GP:
The work with Amazon Web Service, meanwhile, continued for F1 as they announced a new TV graphic named ‘Qualifying Pace’ from Turkish GP weekend, which will analyse the pace of the cars/teams using practice data to predict the pace in qualifying.
They will use an algorithm where they will fit all the variable data collected from live timing, teams, GPS, etc, and present the results as per that data. Here’s a video explanation of new Qualifying Pace graphic: https://twitter.com/F1/status/1326829338294169601
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