This weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona will mark the primary time since 2006 that System 1 makes use of a configuration of the monitor with out the chicane on the finish of the lap.

This monitor structure has not been utilized in official F1 testing, and the one driver with expertise of a chicane-free Barcelona in an F1 race is Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso who contested 5 grand prix there previous to the chicane’s introduction in 2007.

Lewis Hamilton, who raced on the earlier structure throughout his title-winning GP2 season 17 years in the past, is glad to see the again of it.

“Our automobile has by no means appreciated that chicane. I’ve by no means appreciated it,” he stated in response to a query from RaceFans. “So we’re going to come back out of flip 12 after which flat, most likely flat-out via the final two. It’s going to be nice for our neck, nice for tyre put on, and it’s going to be enjoyable.”

Mercedes’ automobile “by no means appreciated that chicane” – HamiltonFerrari’s Charles Leclerc and McLaren’s Lando Norris echoed his feedback.

“I believe the left-front can be crying for the entire race,” reckoned Leclerc. “It’s the identical for everyone. It’s going to be an enormous problem I believe when it comes to set-up additionally to attempt to assist that left-front as a lot as potential.

“I hope that with the brand new elements we carry we can be good with tyre administration as a result of I anticipate this to be the principle factor in Barcelona.”

Norris predicted the change could have a big bearing on tyre technique throughout the race. “Flip 12, which was the right-hander initially, was already a killer for the front-left subsequent, and now we’ve obtained two high-speed corners. It’d develop into a bit extra of a administration race, much more than what it’s, and it’s already an enormous administration race.

Drivers could have higher passing alternatives“Possibly it sort of pushes everybody to be extra like one-stop [or] two-stop sort of factor. I’ve obtained no thought. Possibly the pit stops can be a bit greater, I’m unsure. We’ll wait and see. However I stay up for it.”

Haas duo Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen are each enthusiastic to drive round Barcelona with out the chicane for the primary time.

“It’s going to be thrilling to strive the unique structure with out the chicane,” stated Magnussen. “It at all times appeared like an awesome sequence of corners – the final two corners – with it being so high-speed. Let’s see what that does for overtaking. I’ve a sense it may be barely higher for overtaking however time will inform.”

Hulkenberg is anticipating “a tough neck exercise” and reckons that with a rise in common pace it “is certainly extra demanding” now:

“It’s really fairly good for a change as a result of, for lots of drivers which were round for a few years, they’ve felt somewhat uninterested in as a result of you’ve pre-season testing there and another testing throughout the 12 months there, so it does get a bit one-sided, so now I’m a bit extra excited to go there with out testing. I haven’t raced there since 2019.”

2023 Spanish Grand Prix

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