In several places, the low walls have been moved outwards, while the curbs have been made smoother and less aggressive.
Unlike in previous years, the resurfacing work has created a situation where drivers could explore the limits of the track at some corners, meaning they could get into disagreements with FIA race director Niels Wittich.
The classic pre-race notes provided to the teams before each race weekend clarify the current interpretation: “The white lines define the edges of the track. During qualifying and the race, whenever a driver fails to rejoin [entro] track limits, the lap time will be invalidated by the stewards”.
Drivers expect to hear the impact of the Jeddah track changes during Friday free practice. “There are some points where yes, you can go further, obviously with the walls widened from the track limit,” Valtteri Bottas told a question from Motorsport.com about the potential for track limit abuse.
“There’s a chance to take advantage, but I think they’re pretty well controlled today. So, like on any other track where there’s a chance to go wide, I personally don’t see any major problems. You just have to be careful.”
Of the same opinion is also Alex Albon, who underlined the work done on the curbs, which should make the track more open to various interpretations: “I think last year the curbs were quite insidious and dangerous and they did a good job to remedy this problem,” said the Williams driver.
Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo F1 Team,
Photo by: Motorsport Images
“But now it might be open to the limits of the track. But we’ll see. I think there’s a lot to explore. In some corners I think it will be almost too fast to do that. Like I said, I think overall the circuit is better. I think it’s the main thing we should focus on.”
Like Bottas, Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg also expects a potential fine for exceeding track limits to act as a deterrent.
“I think the FIA has had a firm position for about a year, the white line,” said the German. “And indeed in Bahrain we talked about it again in the drivers’ meeting, you can’t cross the white line.”
“Often these are very thin margins, especially in qualifying, it’s a decision of a few millimetres. Sometimes it’s difficult to see from inside the car. But we’ll work on it and hopefully we’ll be in order.”
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