Ecclestone calls for circuits upgrades

[Gerard]

Following the first lap accident at the Italian GP on Sunday, which lead to the death of a fire marshal, Bernie Ecclestone has called for further upgrades to F1 circuits.

He specifically wants alterations designed to reduce the speeds of the cars to be reversed, such as the chicanes at the Monza circuit.

He was quoted as saying: 'Chicanes are silly and unnecessary. We have got rid of them at many circuits and now I would get rid of the rest of them if I had it my way.'

What circuits is Bernie E. talking about? Do you know of any Grand Prix circuits where they got rid of the chicanes?

And doesn't Bernie always have it his way?

[Jay]

Obviously he is talking about Monza (and maybe Hockenheim?)

Video footage revealled that the marshal that was killed was not where he was supposed to be. He was standing in front of the protective barriers when he was hit with a front wheel from HHF's Jordan.

I don't think any more revisions are necessary to Monza, as it is not going to get any safer. The only thing you can do is drop the race from the F1 circuit, which wouldn't bother me, becuase it has never been that interesting with all of those chicanes.

I have never heard of any circuits where they have removed chicanes. They only seem to add them.

They simply need to make sure the marshals have adequate protection and stay where they are supposed to.

[Valve Bounce]

Just a suggestion: would spacing the rows of the grid to twice the present distance as ell as increasing the stagger between cars on the same row make the starts less problematic? The next step is rolling starts, and I don't think F1 is eady for that yet. They could alter the rules to make overtaking more possible and so make starts less frantic. What are your views?

[RIKB]

Bernie seems to be saying that he wishes to replace chicanes with a single slow bend, as he believes this would still slow the cars without creating such a bottleneck.

Mosleys comments were rather inflammatory though, he said that amatuer drivers could get through the chicanes every weekend without incident so why cant the worlds best drivers.

Couldn't be anything to do with them approaching the corner at 200mph and using a braking distance slightly shorter than a sparrows fart I suppose?

[TimD]

Ah, just the thing to brighten a glum evening - the happy mental images of the scientists detailed to measure the precise dimensions, cubic capacity, duration and possibly even resonance of a sparrow's fart.

Seriously, on the face of it, this could be the first bit of policy where Bernie and I have agreed in years. Chicanes throw the rhythm of a circuit, are at best an extra hazard (Senna "S" in Brazil springs to mind), sometimes totally ill-thought (old Woodcote at Silverstone) or frequently downright dangerous (temporary Eau Rouge chicane a couple of years back).

If I remember rightly, there have been no sheer speed accidents at the old slipstreaming Monza. Hockenheim's dark atmosphere is down to the trees which hold the mist and which claimed Jim Clark, rather than the straights.

Bring on the old ways once more - a nice double apex corner at the end of a long, long straight, where the slipstreaming can be done in as much safety as the current scrabble through twisty artificial corners.

And someone, somewhere do something about the roundabout at Le Mans. Oh for the Mulsanne Straight to be actually straight once more.

[Flabby]

Wow, TimD, that image is almost poetry.

If I'm not mistaken, they did lose a chicane at Catalunya on what is now the back straight, but that's only one I can think of.

[jarama]

You're right, Flabby. There was a right-hander/left-hander after the Campsa Curve that was substituted by a straight until the La Caixa Curve. The old layout is used in national events.

Besides this, following the death of Senna -the Spanish G.P. was the next race- on 1994 was used one temporary chicane to slow the cars at the same spot.

[MichaelC]

Yes. They built a delightful chicane out of tyres half way down the straight. People kept barreling into it, so it was made wider and wider over the course of the weekend until it wasn't really much of a chicane any more.

From where I'm standing, it doesn't much matter whether you have a slow corner or a chicane to slow things down. Either way the cars will slow down and bunch up, some idiot will always come charging along with all four wheels locked up and slide into the back of the pack.
I think what is needed is a series of gradually sharper curves to slow the cars down over the course of a few corners, then boot it out of a genuinely sharp turn onto a nice straight again.