Changes have been made to the pit lane and kerbs at the Baku City Circuit in response to the safety concerns which arose after the first day of running at the track on Friday.
The pit lane entrance has been a particular area of concern as it requires drivers to slow down in close proximity to other cars passing by at full speed. In order to guard against this drivers have now been told they must enter the pits if they have all four wheels to the left of the line and they must remain to the left of the line as they enter the pits.
The line leading towards it has been extended forwards 40 metres and made wider so it can be seen more easily and a pit entry sign added on a nearby barrier.
Problems with the circuit’s kerbs which forced the postponement of yesterday’s GP2 qualifying session have also been addressed. Kerbs have been removed at the exit of turns six and twelve and the entry to turn 13, and replaced with painted kerbs on the ground.
The kerb at the exit of the pits has also been removed and a replacement painted on. Drivers have been instructed that for safety reasons they must not exceed the limits of the pit exit by cutting the white line on the new kerb with all four wheels.
However problems with the new circuit continued during the final practice. A loose drain cover damaged a sidepod on the Williams of Valtteri Bottas, forcing him to miss the entire session.
Lee (@leejo)
18th June 2016, 13:14
The track seems dangerous and poorly-prepared. Here in the US, one of the commentators, David Hobbs, said several times “I’m amazed that the FIA approved this track.” We’ll see how things go, but I’m worried that someone is going to get hurt.
Jules Winfield (@jules-winfield)
18th June 2016, 13:29
I’m not amazed at all. You only need look at Charlie Whiting’s performances over the last few years to realise that he and his cohorts are utterly incompetent.
Lee (@leejo)
18th June 2016, 14:58
The slang term I keep thinking of is “janky.” If you knew someone who owned an old van that pooted out blue smoke, had to be jump-started most of the time, and maybe they didn’t exactly have clean title…you might say “that’s a mighty janky van you got there, buddy.” In poor condition and of questionable origin. Seems like a janky track. Nice views, though.
KaIIe (@kaiie)
18th June 2016, 13:24
Easy solution for getting rid of these “small” problems would be to stage a race a week or so before the GP itself with some moderately fast cars (or maybe even a GP2 event first). I just hope no one gets hurt if we get another drain cover or something similar – those marshals on the pitwall were right on the path of the flying cover in the Bottas incident.