With the Turkish Grand Prix begins the final seven-round sprint of a championship that will be remembered for a long time in the years to come. We start from Istanbul Park, a track widely appreciated by drivers and which has quickly found a place in the hearts of fans despite the less than ten editions held so far. The racetrack stands out for the wide variety of curves present and for its adaptation to the landscape, a feature that introduces numerous changes in slope over the course of the tour. In addition to the design of the track and the world championship challenge between Hamilton and Verstappen, the themes of the Turkish weekend also include two unknowns, linked to the asphalt and climatic conditions.
The first question mark on the eve of the sixteenth round of the World Championship focuses precisely on the state of the road surface. In 2020, the organizers were forced to urgently resurfaced the track a few days before the event, with the result that the race was held on a terribly slippery asphalt due to the oily substances that resurfaced on the surface. The situation was further complicated by the low temperatures in November, which made even just putting the tires up to temperature a challenge. Qualifying and the race finally took place in the rain, reducing the low level of grip even more.
For the 2021 edition the situation should be better, considering how the resurfacing was not carried out close to the event. The road surface has also been recently washed and treated to improve the level of grip, while the Grand Prix dispute one month earlier than the 2020 edition will bring higher ambient temperatures capable of accelerating tire temperatures. Nevertheless, the definitive answers on the actual conditions of the track will be available no earlier than Friday, but given the dispute of a few events during the year it is reasonable to expect in any case. a track green and not very rubberized, which will evolve rapidly over the weekend.
The second unknown is represented by the weather forecasts, which do not exclude that Formula 1 could be baptized by the rain for the third Grand Prix out of five since returning from the summer break. Regardless of whether or not the rain actually arrives, a further element of variability is represented by little prior information available to teams. In fact, the 2020 edition of the race at Istanbul Park was held in decidedly anomalous atmospheric and asphalt conditions, such as to make the data collected probably not representative of what the teams will encounter next weekend.
Curve 8 examination
The Intercity Istanbul Park measures 5338 meters connected by 14 curves uniformly distributed between 6 folds on the right and 8 on the left. Distinctive feature of the circuit is the renowned curve 8, a long bend to the left with four different chord points to connect and interpret, with a total length of 640 meters, equal to 12% of the track. Track conditions will determine how modern single-seaters can tackle this section, but there is a concrete possibility that the cars can drive it in full, getting into eighth gear in the last stretch. If this were the case, the cars would travel in full force for over 15 seconds from the exit of turn 7 to the braking point of turn 9, experiencing lateral accelerations of more than 5 g for around 6 seconds.
However, the Turkish racetrack is much more than just Turn 8. The entire first sector is a succession of gradients, changes of direction that require precision and reactivity of the front axle, as well as several blind curves. There are also a couple of combined braking sections, where you can see the trail braking, that is where the drivers brake with the steering wheel turned, a condition that makes it particularly easy to get the wheels to lock. Furthermore, it should not be forgotten that several braking sections are sloping, thus altering the normal distribution of weights on the two axles and inducing the drivers to make mistakes again.
The third and last sector finally sees a long straight, on which the second activation zone of the DRS is located, which precedes a section of three successive low-mileage curves in second gear, with speeds just over 50 km / h. The final stretch of the track therefore rewards the mechanical grip guaranteed by the suspension group, even more than the aerodynamic load, which emerges however in the other points of the track.
Overall, it emerges that the Istanbul Park is an incredibly complete track, particularly difficult as regards the definition of the structure, tending towards medium to high levels of downforce. It is also required a balanced car, able to express good cornering speeds without compromising straight-line competitiveness, and at the same time balanced, without imbalances between the mechanical and aerodynamic balance in the passage from the guided sections to the high and low distances. Although this principle is valid everywhere, it becomes even more relevant on a track such as the Turkish one which has a range of curves with a wide variety of geometries, even more so than in other tracks on the calendar.
Tires and brakes
For the Turkish Grand Prix the Pirelli has decided to bring the intermediate compounds of its range, namely the C2, C3 and C4, one step softer than in the 2020 edition and at the same time harder than those used in Sochi. The main stresses for the tires derive from the loads experienced when cornering, in particular in the long curve 8 which strongly stresses the external wheels on the right side, but the longitudinal stresses in traction and braking also remain high. The minimum inflation pressures recommended by Pirelli for the event are normal, with 22.0 psi at the front and 20.0 psi at the rear.
On the brake front, the track was classified by Brembo with a severity of 3 out of 5 for the braking system, used on nine occasions during the lap, for use equal to 17% of the overall time. Brembo technicians have identified the most demanding braking in the one before turn 12, where the single-seaters decelerate from over 300 km / h to about 90 km / h. In detail, the drivers brake for 2.83 seconds, experiencing a deceleration of 4.5 g.
The themes of the GP
On the eve of the Turkish Grand Prix, the discussions of the experts focus on su which drivers will serve a penalty on the starting grid for the replacement of the fourth engine of the season, an element that adds to the other unknowns related to the climate and the conditions of the asphalt. Lewis Hamilton is among the suspects to replace his power unit, given the Mercedes concerns about reliability, also dictated by the fierce competition with Red Bull that has pushed the Brixworth-based engineer to make the most of his engines. Even more likely, however, is the penalty of Carlos Sainz, who could switch to the new Ferrari hybrid specification that anticipates important solutions in a 2022 key, after his teammate has already made the change in Sochi.
During the season, the challenge between the two teams fighting for the title highlighted their great balance, such as to make any kind of prediction uncertain. However, Istanbul Park should represent less favorable terrain for Mercedes than Monza and Sochi have been, which is why it is reasonable to expect. a more competitive Red Bull over the course of the weekend. On the front of the run-up to third place, a reason for interest will be represented by the race of Charles Leclerc with the power unit updated in the hybrid part, already seen in action in Sochi, where however the Monegasque had started from the back of the grid.
In Istanbul, attention will also focus on McLaren. In fact, since returning from the summer break, the car from Woking has approached the top of the class on several occasions. At Spa Norris seemed capable of fighting for pole position before the incident in Q3, while in Monza the historic double to crown an extraordinary weekend. Finally, in Sochi Norris first took pole position, and then expressed an impressive race pace in the second stint, before losing the victory with the arrival of the rain. The recent performances of McLaren have been accompanied by rain or by tracks capable of enhancing the qualities of the MCL35M, such as Monza, but given the increasing frequency of the team’s positive results, with the exception of Zandvoort, it is legitimate to wonder if there have been also of the concrete progress of the car. In fact, at the Hungarian Grand Prix, just before the summer break, the team had introduced updates to the boomerangs and other aerodynamic appendages in the area in front of the side radiators, in an area that is crucial for the efficiency of the fund. The hope for Istanbul is therefore to be able to get a clearer picture of McLaren’s competitiveness, unaffected by rain and other external anomalies. However, looking at the weather forecast for the weekend and the asphalt conditions still to be evaluated, it seems increasingly likely that this evaluation will have to be postponed again.