Why F1 Drivers Are Unlikely to See Their Desired Track Change at Yas Marina | RaceFans

Two years ago, the Yas Marina circuit underwent extensive renovations in an effort to facilitate overtaking and reduce the predictability of its Formula 1 race, typically the season finale. The changes consisted of removing multiple slow corners and replacing them with simpler, more lenient bends. While the modifications were well-received, the two races held since then indicate that they have not significantly impacted the ease of racing on the circuit.

Following yesterday’s qualifying session, the top two grid drivers expressed similar opinions on the changes still necessary for the track.

Max Verstappen, the pole winner, shared, “The only thing I would like to change is just the off-camber corners. I think that doesn’t really help the racing. A bit more banked corners would help. Turn seven, the little crest, it always throws you off a little bit. Especially when you’re behind, you just lose a lot of traction, so that corner also just bank it a bit. That would help.”

Agreeing with Verstappen, Charles Leclerc stated, “It’s very difficult to follow in those off-camber corners. During qualifying, as soon as you get it wrong but even by five or 10 centimetres that has huge consequences, which I like it in qualifying but I agree with Max that for the race I don’t think that’s great because you struggle a lot to follow in those corners.”

He also emphasized the need for changes to the off-camber corners, saying, “I think it would be nice; it will definitely help racing. It’s a track where there’s already quite a lot of overtaking opportunities, but definitely that will make it even better.”

They are not the first drivers to voice this opinion. Before the track was overhauled, drivers like Esteban Ocon cited the off-camber corners as a reason for poor racing at the circuit.

Most of the off-camber corners are concentrated around the end of the lap, from turns 12 to 14, where the track winds beneath the Yas Viceroy hotel. Drive International, the designers behind the changes, did explore the possibility of easing the camber on those corners at the time. However, as managing director Ben Willshire told RaceFans, doing so would have complicated and expensive implications.

“If you’re flipping cambers around over the width of the circuit, which is between 12, 14 or even 20 metres wide in some areas, you end up with something like 200 millimetres of change,” he said. “You’d end up reconstructing essentially the entirety of the track from the ground up, including all of the run-off areas, all the barrier lines, all of the service road,” Willshire explained. “So it goes from being a reprofiling project to a complete full rebuild of the entire sequence which obviously is not practical.”

The circuit was originally constructed for the artificial island of Yas by designer Tilke and was the most expensive one ever built when it opened in 2009. However, not all design choices made at that time can be easily reversed, and some off-camber corners seem here to stay.

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