(Motorsport-Total.com) – First contact with the race track around the IFEMA complex in Madrid in Formula 1 led to less chaos than some in the paddock had feared. While there were several accidents and even a burning vehicle in the Formula 3 and Formula 2 sessions, the only Formula 1 incident so far was a crash by Arvid Lindblad.
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The Madring has thus not yet proven to be a “car killer” in the top class – which, however, does not mean that Verstappen is a big fan of the newest addition to the Formula 1 calendar.
When asked about his first impression of the track, he simply replies: “Yeah …”
When asked if that was all the four-time world champion had to say about it, he continues: “Yeah, I don’t know. I’m not a fan of street circuits, that will never change. I will always prefer to race on a track like Spa.”
“I mean, what they have put together here – how they built it all – in my opinion, they did a really good job, but I’m just not a fan of street circuits,” says the Dutchman.
Interesting from an engineering perspective
Pierre Wache, Red Bull’s Technical Director, describes the track as very demanding from a technical point of view due to the variety of corners. However, overtaking will be an enormous challenge, predicts the Frenchman.
“The track offers quite a few different types of corners, which is interesting from an engineering perspective. Apart from that, overtaking will be extremely difficult, as it looks,” he says.
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When Wache talks about the challenge for the engineers, it is not only because of the different types of corners. The teams also have to find a compromise between ride height and stiffness of the car: stiff enough for the fast sections and the banked corner, but soft enough to be able to ride over the curbs.
“Yes, and I think you also have to balance between some corners and energy release. Some corners are taken at full throttle, which leads to sliding on the tires – we need to look at that more closely. But yes, it is challenging.”
No chance of victory?
A new race track theoretically always offers opportunities, but Verstappen made it clear yesterday that he does not see golden chances for a race win for Red Bull there. This picture was confirmed on Friday with sixth place, four tenths behind the fastest, Kimi Antonelli.
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“From our side, that’s more or less the position we’re in,” says Verstappen. “We just need to work a bit more on the balance, try to get a bit more out of a lap and then see how the tires behave over the distance. But I guess everyone is in the same boat.”
Aside from that, Verstappen struggled with power steering problems in the second free practice but does not expect them to affect him for the rest of the weekend. “I mean, it was all drivable, but it didn’t feel the same anymore. But they’ll fix that.”
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