The most beautiful world championship in F1 history arrives at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia, a track that will be completed shortly before the engines are started for the penultimate world championship round that precedes the Abu Dhabi epilogue by a week.
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton are playing an important piece of the season on a track that has very little of a classic city system: the track, designed by architect Tilke, is located in an offshoot of the seafront so it has its own characteristics: devoid of curves at 90 degrees that have always characterized city circuits, it is destined to conquer the record of the longest (6,174 meters) and fastest (an average of over 250 km / h has been calculated) circuit of this type in the history of the World Championship.
Jeddah Street Circuit overview
Photo by: Uncredited
While waiting to find out from real life, the drivers were able to get to know the unprecedented Saudi Arabian plant built about thirty kilometers from Jeddah to the simulator: it is a track that will have to be tackled with very low aerodynamically unloaded cars in search of a high level of maximum speed: at turn 27, where there will be the hardest braking of the seven planned, it should reach over 317 km / h for a deceleration of over 200 km / h with a force of 4.3 g.
For Brembo this is a medium level track due to its severity on the brakes: the riders will be on the left pedal for 14% of the lap time, while the pole position should be around a time of 1’28 ”.
The one in Jeddah is a track with two important escape routes, while the rest of the asphalt strip is surrounded by walls very close to the asphalt strip. At least here we will not hear about exceeding the track limits, but every slightest mistake, every smudge can have important negative effects.
Pirelli brought the medium range of its five compounds, choosing C2, C3, C4 and did not dare to use the softer compound, not knowing the characteristics of the surface which was only applied in recent days. Turn 13 is the most demanding for the tires: it is a left with a bank of 12 degrees that should subject the tires to forces of 4.1 g, even if the peak in deceleration is measured at turn 1 with 4.5 g.
Jeddah Street Circuit overview
Photo by: Uncredited
In short, Jeddah offers a series of peculiarities that will help to ignite the spectacle of a world championship challenge that promises to be very heartfelt not only among the duelists for the title, but also for the supporting positions. Which car will be the favorite? It’s hard to say: on paper it should be the Mercedes for the most powerful engine, but every time predictions were made, the reality turned out to be very different from forecasts.
One fact is certain: it will be a track on which no one will have lapped so the times will be destined to drop as the rubber settles on a surface that, at least at the beginning, will be very green.
Jeddah Street Circuit overview
Photo by: Uncredited
#Jeddah #simulation #pole #position #approach