On the banked curves of Zandvoort: works of art that impress

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“I think the drivers will like it, but I don’t know. What I am sure of is that it will not leave anyone indifferent. Love it or hate it. It’s a track that leaves a mark on you, a unique track in the world, I’m sure. But the pilots themselves will say this when they enter it”. This is how Jarno Zaffelli, who is in charge of the redesign of Zandvoort in MD, has shown, before returning the mythical Dutch track to F1 in 2021, after many years of absence in the ‘Great Circus’ (since 1985). The project to remodel and update the current FIA safety regulations was huge and they approached it aggressively. They either loved it or hated it. And as soon as the pilots set foot on the track, they understood what Jarno was telling this newspaper about a track with its own spirit, different, in a special setting, near the city of Zandvoort and its beach, with a happy atmosphere. because of the colors it gives. the thousands of fans of Max Verstappen give, but above all, because of the asphalt itself. The track is fun, a challenge for the drivers, and especially fun because of its two famous corners, the work of Jarno.

We refer to turns 3 and 14. Turn 14 is the last on the circuit. A long banked curvone on the American oval that allows cars to accelerate while rolling on an incline. The bank in question is twice as steep as the Indianapolis oval, at 18 degrees, and in this corner cars run at more than 300 km/h, writing while accelerating hard. The idea of ​​this curve arose from the lack of straight lines on Dutch tracks. There is no room to enlarge the circuit, as it is between the beach, the city and some protected sand. He decided to make a corner closest to a straight for F1 cars: a big banked corner.

“After 1985 (the last year it hosted an F1 GP), the track was shortened. In 2019 Charlie Whiting inspected it with the aim of finding a way to have a longer straight and at the end of the straight it will have a hairpin bend to increase DRS overtaking. The longest straight at Zandvoort is only 600 meters, and trying to extend it on one side is not possible because there are some houses built after 1985 and in other side, and also not because there is a natural dune park. So it’s not possible. So they looked for a way to do something else in the last corner”, Zaffelli revealed to MD in 2021. Now, two years later, he met by MD live. In person, his immense passion commands attention, something not only appreciated on television.

“Then the Zandvoort track manager asked Charlie Whiting if he could make up for the lack of straightness by banking the last corner (which is banked), like an oval circuit. By tilting it, the lateral acceleration will be vertical acceleration. Whiting then said that it could be done, but what had been established until then was marked with a maximum of 10% of the bank, 5.7 degrees. Then he said that we would have to ask the FOM how many degrees were needed in the curve to open the DRS to see if it can be built”, added the Italian. Finally, the project was born after many analyses, studies and simulations, and Dromo won the competition to build this track. In September 2019, they presented their project to FOM and construction began in December 2019. Between the months of January, February and March 2020, they demolished the track and rebuilt it to adapt it to F1 requirements. And at the beginning of that process, the idea of ​​turn 3, another great opponent, came up.

Turn 3: a work of art

Turn 3 is also special, tighter, with an incline of 19 degrees, which allows several outside or inside lanes for cars to race against each other. It was slower than before, but it was quite a challenge as the car braked down and in the middle of a bumpy corner, on a fast lap, it was normal to see drivers having to make corrections with their hand to prevent the outer wall from going up. It is a beauty.

Personally, Turn 3 is also impressive. Because of its inclination, which at first glance seems to be lower than when you step on its asphalt. It is difficult to understand how it is possible for an F1 driver to reach the top, brake and trace it as seen on the track. Unbelievable. The drivers come at full speed and the car suffers a significant fall in less than 50 meters. and go about 250 km/h 250, to brake down to drop 6 meters blindly, because from the cockpit you can’t see what’s below. “And inside this curve they have to climb another eight meters. When they return to those 8 meters, there is a very fast sequence, and therefore, turn 3 becomes important not to make mistakes in the rest of the sector, ” Zaffelli to MD in 2021.

They were inspired by the Sitges oval

The designer of Zandvoort in 2021 revealed to MD that for the creation of the current layout design he visited several tracks, such as the mythical Catalan oval of Sitges Terramar, located in Sant Pere de Ribas (Barcelona). The one in Sitges was the first permanent circuit in Spain, inaugurated in October 1923, when it hosted the first Spanish Grand Prix of what would become F1. Due to financial problems, the FIA ​​sanctioned the racetrack and international races were no longer held. What no one expected was that a vintage track would be the inspiration for Jarno to understand the mistakes he could not make in his big challenge at Zandvoort.

“Sitges Terramar has an inclination of up to 66 degrees. I went there to study that circuit, among many that I studied, because this type of curve was used in the 50s and 60s, but the way calculation and measurement are not enough to guarantee the safety of the drivers. In fact, in Sitges there were races for one or two years, until it was realized that the transition curves were not done correctly. The cars were leaving on the track. I went there to understand what they had done wrong”, explained Jarno to this newspaper at that time.

Source: La Verdad

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