All twenty Grand Prix circuits featured on the 2017 Formula 1 calendar will have to make changes to accommodate the faster cars, according to the FIA.
There will be changes to the 2017 regulations, these will include revised aerodynamics and bigger Pirelli tyres, with these changes it is expected that lap times will be reduced along with an increase in cornering speeds. The organisers of the season opener in Australia have already made changes to the Albert Park Circuit.
Laurent Mekies, F1 deputy race director confirmed all tracks will receive similar instructions based on the simulations from the teams.
“Every single team has been asked to provide simulations for their 2017 cars,” he said at the Autosport International Show. “We used these simulations to feed our simulation software.
“We simulated every single track with the 2017 car, so there is much higher cornering speed. It’s up to 40 km/h faster in high-speed corners. Every single track is receiving from the FIA a request to upgrade based on that. That process is ongoing; we are doing it in the order of the championship. Therefore, not all the tracks have received it yet, but they will. Melbourne is OK.”
The changes to the circuits are not simply about moving the barriers as far away from the track, there are different changes that need to be implemented to make the tracks safer.
“In a straight line, we want the walls close to the track,” he said. “We want to limit the possibility for the car to take an angle and hit head-on.
“If instead you are looking at run-off areas at the end of a braking zone, we want the run-off to be as long as possible, according to the barriers we have. In some tracks, very often, we ask [for] the walls to get closer to the track, because if we lose a car there, we want it to be picked straight away by the walls and slide into it.”
