New last corner at Sepang?
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The Sepang International Circuit has announced that they have completed more than 50% of the repairs and upgrades to the circuit and it should be on track to be re-opened on May 8th.
They say:
The resurfacing and upgrading exercise involves the entire 5.543km track, including improving corner driveability at Turns 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 as well as 8, 9, 12 and 15, upgrading of the drainage system, the kerbs and the run-off area at Turns 1, 4, 9, 12 and 15, as well as upgrading the shortcuts. The last turn will make a major impact to the track, offering users a brand new and challenging experience.
The circuit is being worked on by Jarno Zaffelli who is sort of the Moto GP equivalent of Herman Tilke (Sentiment from fans might vary). He has worked on Misano, Imola, Mugello and most recently Autodromo Termas de Río Hondo which hosted the Argentine Moto GP round.
On his twitter he has a picture of the apparent “New” last corner at Sepang.
It doesn’t appear to be that different so we will have to wait and see.I don’t know, it looks a little bit wider to my eye. I guess they want to reshape it a bit to make the pit entry less awkward. Perhaps they keep the entry at the same place, but make the corner radius a bit larger, followed by a kink to the right to connect it to the straight?
Anyway, great that a moto guy is doing the redesign, I have a feeling Tilke would have made it into a hairpin. :/
I may be wrong, but using the T7 grandstand on the right as a refernce, it looks to me as if the corner entry has a bigger radius than before. Maybe they created a tighter exit to make it a bit like Bahrain T9-T10 (probably not as tight), and also help with the pit entry? Or maybe halfway through the turn it leads into the old pit entry, and it comes back to the main straight after another turn, also changing the PE.
It’s hard to tell much from the picture. Wouldn’t be surprised if they want to fix the awkward pit entrance Tilke put in. But not sure how they could do it with the space they’ve got.
@sepangcircuit the new last corner is taking shape. Completely new challenge for #MotoGP riders and #F1 drivers pic.twitter.com/EuCcrVq8Po
— Jarno (@jarnozaffelli) April 9, 2016
I hope not, negative camber slows the cars down and unsettles them, making it worse for overtaking, but by the sound of “new challenges” it may be right.
I hope the character of the rest of the circuit isn’t ruined, it’s quite a nice track.
I’ve seen some maps online that move the pit entrance to after the turn rather than near the middle. I’d prefer seeing it before the turn.
@zantkiller Thanks very much for the tip. I’ve been in touch with the circuit and they’ve supplied some more information:
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