Quote:
Originally Posted by Purist
The issue is that the sharper apex puts a point of curb protruding into where that inside car needs to go to make that two-wide situation possible. If he isn't cutting the track, then the guy on the outside doesn't have a viable line through; he either has to run too tight a line to work, or gets run off the outside of the track by the guy on the inside. The three main, theoretical, passing places at the Indy road course have the same problem. Like I said, corner shape matters. Yeah, it's still a right/left/right, but the turns are so angular now that there aren't two viable lines through it.
Hell, Vettel and Ricciardo couldn't make two-wide through the T1-3 complex work, even on the opening lap, in 2015. And going wider than Vettel did on the exit of Turn 1 just makes your line untenable for making Turns 2 and 3. It just doesn't physically work. Two guys fighting hard also doesn't work into Turns 4 and 5 with the changes they made, as we saw with Raikkonen and Bottas; it's another one-line complex.
Also, given the speeds they reach on that front straight, a 90-100-mph corner would provide sufficient energy reduction through braking to promote significant overtaking. If that weren't the case, Les Combes at Spa wouldn't work as an overtaking zone.
Furthermore, that slower Turn 3 hurts overtaking into Turn 4, because you get a larger spread in the physical gap between cars because of that slower entry onto the straight. You have the same thing, to a lesser extent, going into the turn entering the Foro Sol (Stadium), because of the alterations they made to "the Esses".
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None of that really makes a difference. Especially as, unless you have a modern circuit, side by side for several corners is borderline myth. You'll like my YouTube link as it contradicts this. As more overtaking is completed under braking and the single apex single line helps this.
The travesty, if we're looking for one, is the corner that has been completely destroyed. The one that Nige had that famous overtake on. However the travesty isn't really to do with it being a great overtaking place, it's to do with it just being fast and impressive.
Was that really the only place in Mexico to build a baseball stadium?