IN
THE
WIND
P58
CHICANE ISSUES FOR EMBATTLED
MONTMELO CIRCUIT
V
alentino Rossi led calls
for a mid-weekend circuit
change in Barcelona, after
crashes and problems at
the new, ultra-tight chicane,
installed "for safety reasons,"
at the Montmelo (Catalunya)
circuit.
Last year, in an emergency
measure after Luis Salom
crashed fatally at a corner with
insufficient run-off, MotoGP ad-
opted the Formula 1 layout, with
a tighter hairpin at the end of
the back straight and a chicane
before the last, fast corner's
slowing entry and exit from that
section. But the chicane was
considered also risky, with not
enough runoff and an awkward
pit lane entry, and riders re-
quested a change for this year.
It came in the form of an-
other chicane, some 55 yards
before the Formula 1 left-right.
Some riders—including the
factory Honda, Ducati and
Aprilia teams—had tested there
after Le Mans, and they found
the very tight turns at the end
of the lap much at odds with
the fast and flowing earlier part.
This posed a challenge for
engineers to find compatible
suspension settings. The previ-
ous layout, said Marc Marquez,
"was more natural. Now it is
like two different tracks."
But after the first day of
practice at this year's Catalunya
MotoGP, with several crashes
at the new section, riders
wanted to revert to the slightly
faster F1 chicane, which had
the advantage of continuous
asphalt, where the new section
had been resurfaced in be-
tween the two corners.
"A chicane like this is not at
the level of MotoGP, because it
is not track—just a piece of as-
phalt put between two tracks,"
said Rossi. The F1 layout was
a backward step anyway, but
at least there was one type of
asphalt, and properly banked
corners, he said.
Riders at Friday's Safety
Commission meeting agreed
with him, and officials decided
to revert to the F1 layout for
Saturday and Sunday.
Michael Scott
The riders were
not happy with the
chicane arrangement
at Catalunya.
