Albert Park, the traditional season opener for Formula One is undergoing some major changes this year. Australian Daniel Ricciardo, the current driver for McLaren is ‘confident’ that the overhauling will ‘be good’ for the drivers here.
The Formula One pundits believe the track is going to be even faster than what it already is. The remodeled Melbourne Park Circuit will see the lap time decreased by as much as five seconds.
More competitive and exciting racing at the #AusGP 🙌
Here are some fast facts about the new changes to the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit.#F1 https://t.co/FHt3fpQ814
— F1 Australian Grand Prix (@ausgrandprix) April 1, 2021
The homeboy, Riccardo, was approached and consulted on the layout change of this Grand Prix. In regard to this, the 31-year-old driver conveyed, “Widening some of the apexes, creating more of a straight in some places to allow for an opportunity for more slipstreaming… that was the priority and I’m very confident that it’s going to be good”
Fast Albert Park track to be faster?
The changes in the track to include some sectors that enables better overtaking situations. The turns specifically turn one will be widened by 2.5 metres, turn three will be widened by 4 metres and turn 6 will be widened by 7.5 metres. This means the average qualifying speed will increase about 15 km/h with the renovated 14 corners in total.
Albert Park Circuit undergoing some major changes. (Image courtesy: Australian Grand Prix official Twitter handle)
Daniel ‘honey badger’ Ricardo further asserted on the changes to be made at Albert Park, “Every street circuit is a challenge, but Albert Park is pretty fast which only adds to that. There’s a lot of fourth and fifth-gear corners and it’s pretty narrow art certain parts. It’s been somewhere that’s been hard to overtake because of that width and because it’s so fast.”
The Grand Prix event that takes place during the initial stages of the Formula One calendar will see the event getting postponed to November this year, thanks to some major changes taking place.
Having got canceled in 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the Grand Prix held its last event back in 2019. With Daniel being ruled out of the race, Mercedes’s Valtteri Bottas is the defending Albert Park Circuit Champion. With the recent changes coming up, it will interest to see how the Australian Grand Prix fares later this year.
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