The guys in Barcelona have been busy over winter, re-profiling turn 10. This had previously been a long sweeping right-hander when the circuit opened in 1991. It was modified in 2004 to try to improve overtaking at the circuit, and to increase the amount of run-off area they introduced an alternative layout which widened the entry and sharpened the profile of the corner.
Moto GP continued to use the original layout, and F1 used the new sharper corner. You can see the two options on the map below.
The new corner is a mixture of the two, sharing the same entry point as the sharper profile, but sweeping around much more gently, more akin with the original.
I’m quite excited to see it, although we’ve potentially lost a good overtaking spot, the straight before it often wasn’t long enough to yield decent overtakes with the current crop of F1 cars.
Unfortunately we are still stuck with the monstrosity which is the final chicane – I am hopeful they will drop this in future seasons.
Grand Prix Art is a growing collection of motorsport art prints, created by designer & developer Matt Shaw.
A lifelong motorsport fan and racing circuit geek, he decided to start creating illustrations of his favourite circuits and cars – and went on from there!