BIG CHANGES TO ALBERT PARK TRACK

Big changes to Albert Park track – Image: LAT

Major revisions to the Albert Park track layout and a full resurface are planned for the postponed Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix in November.

By MARK FOGARTY

Auto Action has learned that several corners of the lakeside street circuit will be ‘realigned’ to improve the F1 racing, along with new bitumen that promotes more tyre wear.

The upgrade is expected to cost somewhere in the range of $10 million to $15 million.

The changes are due to be ready for the rescheduled AGP from November 18-21, although they’re mainly aimed at the new generation ‘ground effect’ F1 cars due next year.

Getting them done for this year’s event will ensure the upgraded track is ready if the 2022 AGP is restored to its traditional season-opening March slot.

The resurfacing and corner alterations are due to begin soon for completion by May.

The pit lane has already been widened with the deletion of the grass verge on the inside of the main straight.

This is designed to raise the F1 pit lane speed from 60 km/h to 80 km/h, reducing the time penalty of tyre stops.

Australian Grand Prix Corporation chief executive Andrew Westacott confirmed the plans to resurface the 5.3 km Albert Park course and modify the layout in time for the AGP in November.

The resurfacing will be the first since the public roads around the lake were relaid for the inaugural Melbourne GP in March 1996.

“It hasn’t been needed to be done until now because it was so well put down in the first place,” Westacott said.

“We were always going to try to do it in 2021, but it would’ve been after the (originally scheduled) 2021 March event. So we’re actively looking now at what we can do to achieve the resurfacing works prior to this November 21.

“That would mean we’d need to get those works completed by May. The engineers are looking at what’s possible to achieve in that timeframe.”

He also revealed that the new track surface would be more abrasive to promote increased tyre wear to open up more F1 race strategies.

“We’re starting to have a good look at the asphalt mix as well because Melbourne is not necessarily high-degradation from a tyre wear point of view,” Westacott said.

“The feedback we’ve had from F1 is that we’re sort of mid-way. We’re not the most aggressive, we’re not the least aggressive – we just don’t do much to tyres

“By having a slightly higher abrasiveness of the asphalt mix, we’ll be able to get more strategies because you’re going to get higher tyre deg and coupled with the other changes, you get something that’s a little more interesting to the cars.”

Renewing the track will also remove bumps that have developed in several corners over a quarter of a century, although F1 drivers – who were told of the resurfacing plan in 2019 – have warned that the ruts are part of the character and challenge of Albert Park.

AGPC engineers are looking at adding slight banking to some turns and making the back section along the lake from Turn 6 to 13 faster, turning it into a new DRS zone.

“The preliminary stuff we’ve done is about camber adjustments,” Westacott explained. “The principles are we want to reward brave driving and good driving, and be able to penalise poor driving. The criticism has been that some of the turns at the moment are not wide enough or there’s not alternate lines into apexes.

“The work that’s being looked at shows that you can widen appropriately Turns 1 and 6, you can modify 9 and 10, you can really achieve some good things at Turn 13 by providing alternate entry lines into those turns. We’re only talking one, two or three metres of adjustment.

“But the other thing that we could also do is adjust camber. At the moment, 13 for instance, I’m told, has negative camber on the outside line. Now, if we had that as all being positive camber and you widen it, suddenly you’re getting an opportunity to provide a number of different lines to the apex.

“We won’t be getting to Zandvoort-type (steep) banking, but if currently it’s a negative two per cent, if we can get positive three, four or five per cent, then it’s a pretty good outcome from a driver’s point of view and it means you can actually be more aggressive to potentially overtake on the outside if someone is trying to defend on the inside.”

The idea is also to remove the Turns 9/10 chicane and increase overtaking opportunities at the tight Turn 13 right-hander.

“There is a view that says if you look at some changes on Turn 9 and 10, you can actually increase the speed around lakeside and therefore what you’re going to be doing is you’re making more of a feature of Turn 13. That has merit.

“The role we’re playing is working with Formula 1 – Ross Brawn and his team – to look at these likely simulations and performances of a 2022-spec car, because that needs to be taken into account in these changes as well.”

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