F1 has water-blasted the Istanbul circuit to prevent a repeat of the 2020 race fiasco.
The 2020 Turkish GP saw massive rain completely ruin the race. Istanbul Park hosted the race, and work for the evet began a few weeks prior to D-Day. However, the poor maintenance saw drivers slip and slide due to the lack of grip on the track.
Pirelli’s hard tyres couldn’t cope with the nature of the track. Then the rain arrived to make things worse, and the race ended after a barrage of slips, slides and spins.
FIA Race Director Michael Masi informed F1 teams that changes have been made this year. According to him, F1 water-blasted the Istanbul circuit to prevent a repeat of the 2020 race fiasco.
“The entire track surface has been treated to increase the grip level,” Masi said, as quoted by motorsport.com.
“We do regularly each season send updates to the teams about any circuit changes for upcoming events. Be they be barriers, fences, gates, whatever. It may be areas of resurfacing.
“So yes, the surface in Turkey has been effectively water-blasted, would probably be the best way to put it, which is a regular treatment that happens.
“We have seen that regularly used in Singapore as an example, where the public roads that are used they resurface those quite regularly because of the movement. That is what has happened there, along with a few other changes.”
Amendments
When asked if they got the entire race wrong last season, Masi said, “I think it was just (a) matter of timing last year.
“I think we said that at the time. It was just literally a matter of timing, and they have rectified that accordingly.”
Meanwhile, F1 Managing Director Ross Brawn said that last race was exciting because the drivers had a good challenge on their hands.
“I appreciate drivers were not happy with overall grip levels,” he said.
“But it was a consequence of the late decision to race there as the calendar was revised to respond to COVID-19.
“I think drivers sometimes need to remember it’s a competition of who crosses the line first, so while grip levels weren’t high, it was the same for everyone. Some drivers got their head down and came to terms with it, others found it a distraction,” he concluded.
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