philipbain
15th December 2014, 14:09
As we know, the Mexican GP is to return in 2015 amid a new wave of Mexican interest in F1. We also know that the race will be held at the historic home of the Mexican GP, namely the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. What hasn’t been clear though is the layout of the track as the track has changed very little since it last held the Mexican GP early in the 1992 season. So I thought I would do some digging on what is being done. It transpires that F1's architect of choice Herman Tilke is involved in upgrading the track and facilities at the track to contemporary F1 standards and a few pieces of information can be gleaned from the project page on Tilke.de: http://www.tilke.de/en/projects/racetracks/autodromo-hermanos-rodriguez.html . It appears as though the facilities will be largely brand new or upgraded but it's the track layout that is of interest to viewers and this is where things potentially take a turn for the worse. The 1st, 2nd & 3rd corner sequence has been slightly re-profiled, I think this is to improve safety provisions, allowing Tilke's trademark supermarket car park sized paved runoffs. Again, the 4th, 5th and 6th corners have also been re-profiled but so far it is roughly following classic lines. After the 6th turn there used to be a snaking sequence of left and right sweeps which ran into each other gradually getting quicker and quicker leading up to the back straight. This has been simplified in Tilke's plan to feature a short straight out of a tighter 6th turn then into an again re-profiled left-right-left-right-left sequence followed by a left kink onto the back straight. Again, this will be to provide more run-off where it is required though there is only limited scope for changes as the area surrounding the circuit is quite built up these days. Then onto the real sucker punch, the by-passing of the Peraltada corner, a fearsome, bumpy, very fast corner with hardly any run-off, famous for Nigel Mansell's pass on Burger on the entry in 1990 and Senna's car-rolling shunt in 1991. When Champ Car visited the venue in the 2000's this was done via a "stadium section" which went through the baseball stadium which is situated on the inside of the Peraltada curve, this was a simple 90 degree right hander at the entry to the old Peraltada, a slow 90 degree left in the stadium and another 90 degree right hander back onto the Peraldada halfway through it, dramatically reducing the cornering speed and improving safety. The F1 solution is remarkably similar if a little more fiddly, with the 90 degree left being replaced by a hairpin and switchback arrangement, which has worked at other Tilke tracks to promote side by side racing, however, in this instance the entry speed will be much lower thanks to the straight leading to it being a short chute out of a slow 90 degree bend, rather than at the end of a long straight where it has been used before, so i'm not expecting this to promote overtaking as such, it will however give spectators in the stadium a couple more seconds to look at and admire the cars! As for how this track layout will work for racing in the current generation of F1 car we'll have to wait and see I guess!
The only full track map I could find was here: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BZG3ma59pKs/UlSkY5n6YKI/AAAAAAAAAlY/NzAsO7ePOa4/s1600/811107886.jpg
A simplified and inaccurate representation here (haven’t included re-profiling of the esses which is clear on the glimpse from Tilke's own site): http://www.f1aldia.com/photos/21000/21044/001_small.jpg
The only full track map I could find was here: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BZG3ma59pKs/UlSkY5n6YKI/AAAAAAAAAlY/NzAsO7ePOa4/s1600/811107886.jpg
A simplified and inaccurate representation here (haven’t included re-profiling of the esses which is clear on the glimpse from Tilke's own site): http://www.f1aldia.com/photos/21000/21044/001_small.jpg