Formula 1 drivers hope Barcelona’s terribly unpleasing final chicane will be addressed next after Turn 10 was redesigned for 2021.
The left-hander has become almost a hybrid version of the original and previous Turn 10 with a sharper entry but a more sweeping exit almost like a mini replica of Monza’s famed Parabolica.
And before taking to the track to try it out on Friday, reaction to the change was fairly muted.
“I don’t think it will change much, honestly,” said Fernando Alonso, who has now driven four different versions of the final sector at Catalunya.
“It was there anyway in the past, so sometimes even if you brake a little bit late into 10, you take that run-off area and you rejoin the track in 12.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a huge impact on the lap time, on the setups, or the overtaking possibilities. I think it’s pretty similar. It should be transparent I think from the outside to the spectator’s point of view.”
However, Charles Leclerc was a little concerned the new corner might make a circuit where passing is tough even harder.
“I’m not so sure,” he said. “I’m pretty sure that there will be different lines there and that will be a bit better to follow, but I also feel that Turn 10 was an opportunity to overtake so I don’t know.
“I think there will be less overtaking in Turn 10 but if then it helps us to follow closer for overtaking before Turn 1, then that’s great. But I think we’ll have to try before commenting on that.”
But when it comes to improving overtaking into the first corner, most believe that requires changes to the chicane which was introduced in 2007 in between what used to be Barcelona’s fearsome final two right-handers.
“It is actually quite exciting, the track also has changed, Turn 10 has a new layout, so we’ll give it a go and see how it goes,” Sebastian Vettel said.
“The only one I guess to sort out would be that chicane in the last sector to bring back the last two corners, but yeah, definitely not for this year but hope [so] for the future.”
That sentiment was shared by Spaniard Carlos Sainz, who of course replaced Vettel at Ferrari for this season.
“Since the chicane was introduced, I don’t think the overtaking has really improved,” he claimed.
“I don’t think it really helped the overtaking, so I would go for the more fun version for the drivers and probably also for the fans.
“I think the racing has changed since back then, now we have DRS, maybe the DRS power would be a bit more powerful if you exit out of the corner a bit quicker.”