Changes to Barcelona for 2007 revealed

This is the official diagram showing the changes made to the Barcelona circuit, home of the Spanish Grand Prix, for the 2007 race.

The penultimate bend, Europcar, has been tightened to allow for the insertion of a chicane on the approach to New Holland.

As mentioned earlier on F1Fanatic the changes have been made to improve safety and effectively neuter two of the fastest corners on the Circuit de Catalunya.

But they also improve the likelihood that aerodynamically-sensitive F1 car will be able to follow each other more closely onto the long straight and potentially make overtaking easier.

Are the potential gains in safety and overtaking worth compromising two fast corners? It will be interesting to see if this year’s race is better than most of the processions we’ve gotten used to seeing in Spain.

Related links

• More overtaking at Barcelona in ‘07?
• The Ben Evans Column: Boring Barcelona
• F1 2006 Review: Most popular race
• Overtaking: Too much or too little?
• Going to a race: Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona

Tags: f1 / formula one / grand prix / motor sport