Carlos Sainz believes Formula 1 can learn from the success of its first race at Mugello, suggesting some design features can be used at other circuits.
The drivers were pretty unanimous in their response to the Italian track, praising its high-speed layout and the old-school feel it generated with gravel traps lurking at every corner.
But while that was one thing the Spaniard highlighted in his assessment of Mugello, there was another thing he noted most modern circuits don’t incorporate into their layouts.
“Honestly, the track itself for me is fun,” Sainz said. “It’s a bit repetitive with the same kind of corner but it’s really good fun. But mainly what I like on this track, there’s two things.
“It’s the gravel traps, I think it’s great to see the gravel traps back, and it’s probably going to give the FIA some confidence that these kind of run-off areas work to protect from track limits and all those issues that we’re having in other tracks. So it was nice to see.
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“And then the other thing which I think we shouldn’t underestimate is the camber. If you watch the F3 and F2 races, you can see cars trying very different lines in very long corners.
“And the only way that that is happening is because of the camber, which allows you to go up in the corner, or be lower in the corner, and have the same amount of grip on the inside and on the outside of the corner in F3 and F2.
“I don’t know why F1 went away from cambered corners in the new philosophy of tracks, which I’m not a big fan of,” the McLaren driver added.
“If you see Abu Dhabi, Russia, you see off-cambered corners that create pretty boring racing. Here you see these big cambers that allow drivers to take different lines in the corners, and it allows everyone to just offset the car aerodynamically to the car in front, and it creates a much better show, and much better racing.
“So something to learn here, I think. I don’t think it would change a lot in F1, I think in F1 it’s still very difficult to follow, but the camber definitely helps.”
On the topic of gravel traps, however, FIA race director Michael Masi explained they can’t be the only answer to solving track limits.
“No, we can’t have them everywhere,” he said. “It’s not a one size fits all, as I’ve said this multiple times.
“We need to come up with the appropriate solutions with each of the circuit owners and operators and we’ll continue working through that.
“We’ve already discussed it with the drivers. So I think it’s a bit much to ask. It’s not the solution everywhere, let’s put it that way.”
The rest of the calendar will see a mix of traditional and modern-day solutions with the tarmac car parks of Sochi, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi combined with the gravel-lined layouts of Nurburgring and Imola.
And of those five circuits, you don’t need to guess which are enjoyed more…
