Formula 1 drivers want Turn 2 at Sochi altered following numerous incidents during the Russian Grand Prix.
The first real corner on the circuit has seen numerous incidents down the years and several different attempts at policing track limits, with the tarmac paradise of the Olympic Park ruling out the grass and gravel seen at Mugello.
In the past few years, a series of bollards have been installed to ensure those running wide lost time but it was when navigating this little chicane that Carlos Sainz crashed into the barrier on the opening lap, ending his race.
“A misjudgement by my side, a mistake,” said the McLaren driver. “I still think that corner shouldn’t exist.
“It is not a very nice corner to drive around and it generates these kind of situations but I just misjudged it.”
Later, Daniel Ricciardo was given a five-second penalty for failing to round the bollards after just running the other side of the sausage kerb and he too voiced his displeasure at the design.
“The geometry is weird, my situation, for example, I locked up, it’s always going to be tight,” commented the Aussie.
“Just the way it is shaped it leaves you with hope until the very last minute or very last second I should say.
“By that point, you have committed you can’t really go back across [to the bollards], you would lose more than five seconds, there is that point of no return and I got to that.”
Asked how he’d alter it, Ricciardo added: “I think they could do something better with it in general, even just to allow more overtaking for example. Maybe a different shaped corner, less of a such a short apex.
“They have quite a bit of room to play with, so we have talked about it in the past. So maybe that would eliminate the issue that we are having with this cut-through.”
George Russell though possibly had the best idea.
“Turn 2 at this circuit is firstly one of the worst corners on the calendar and secondly for racing is a terrible design,” he said.
“I actually suggested this at a driver briefing earlier in the season: we’ve got the room and the space to create almost a Bahrain-style Turn 1 and 2, almost a hairpin into a kink.
“Firstly that would allow a driver to lunge one another into Turn 1, to give better racing, and also avoid people having to cut the track.
“When you go into a 90-degree corner that actually tightens up when you’re three or four abreast obviously cars are going to get pushed off.”
