Lando Norris wants changes to be made on safety grounds at the corner where Lance Stroll crashed during qualifying.
The Aston Martin driver suffered a heavy crash nose-first into a barrier at the final turn on the Marina Bay Street Circuit at the end of Q1. Stroll was uninjured but his car was badly damaged in the impact and qualifying was delayed while the barrier was repaired.Norris was running close behind Stroll when he crashed and had to react quickly when the Aston Martin bounced back onto the track in front of him at turn 19.
“I got there before any yellow [flags] or anything, so I didn’t see it or know of it until the exit of the corner,” said Norris in response to a question from RaceFans. “You [could] see the smoke as I was coming around the corner, but it was impossible to know what was happening.
“He was still spinning and kind of coming back onto the track quite a bit, so I hit the brakes quite quickly because I didn’t know if he was going to come across a lot or what, but then there was just a lot of debris and a tyre so I ducked my head a little bit just in case.”
The high speed the corner is taken at and limited run-off space at its exit means for any crash there is likely to be a significant impact, said Norris. “The most important thing was he got out because it was a big crash. If you ever crash there it’s going to be quite a nasty one, so for him to get out as quickly as he did I think was a good sign.“
Norris would like to see alterations made to the corner which they come close to taking flat-out, but has a change in elevation which can unsettle a car.
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“I don’t know if they can maybe make a small improvement to the track there for next year because there’s kind of like a bit of a dip or something, not smooth enough, and I think everyone’s a bit afraid to do it [flat out].
The current generation of Formula 1 cars are more susceptible to bumps, said Norris.
“It just feels like a bump where you’re driving, I don’t know what it really is or looks like or whatever. It kind of feels like either there’s a decent bump or the rest of the track is just a little bit lower, like the kerb is a bit lower than the actual Tarmac. So it just feels like when you come over it initially it’s okay, but then trying to come back onto the track it just really unsettles the car.
“The cars, you have to run them so low nowadays because of the regulations, as soon as there’s a decent bump you hit the floor and you deck it and you’re gone, you’ve bottomed out and completely lose the car. So I’d say it’s kind of through no fault of his own.
“It’s a known thing because you know if you hit the kerb badly or something, things like this can happen. But it’s obviously just how these regulations are, you have to run the cars low and stiff and things like that.
“We do that nowadays, and there’s a bump which probably didn’t even used to be a bump a few years ago but now it’s a significant bump. We just can’t stand the same things as what we had a few years ago.”
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AlexS
16th September 2023, 20:14
I agree, it is a dangerous corner, needs barriers to soften the impact.
Yellow Baron
17th September 2023, 0:22
If you think about it, it’s a bit like the issues with spa in recent years, but just less of the main contributing factors.
Just that it’s a bit less blind going in to where a car would be coming back on track after a crash into that wall
and much less prone to incidents into that wall pushing cars back out onto the track
And it rarely rains during sessions, plus if there is any it dries out quick enough that they don’t have to race in it much.
Spa of course is the more extreme case in areas but there’s probably a fair few of these spots across the calender but each with less of the main contributing factors.
Thankfully this didn’t happen in the race where there’s the potential for multiple car to be following and at a closer distance.
I’m pretty sure there have been a couple other crash around here but not sure if they have been as bad and if they’ve only been in qualifying where they’re generally much further on the limit
Ntsiabaka (@)
16th September 2023, 23:28
“The cars, you have to run them so low nowadays because of the regulations, as soon as there’s a decent bump you hit the floor and you deck it and you’re gone, you’ve bottomed out and completely lose the car. So I’d say it’s kind of through no fault of his own.
“It’s a known thing because you know if you hit the kerb badly or something, things like this can happen. But it’s obviously just how these regulations are, you have to run the cars low and stiff and things like that.
“We do that nowadays, and there’s a bump which probably didn’t even used to be a bump a few years ago but now it’s a significant bump. We just can’t stand the same things as what we had a few years ago.”
PeterG
16th September 2023, 23:37
@ntsparadize It’s basically been all the same problems and complaints that were around in the 1980s when ground effects were last used in F1.
Other categories that use ground effects such as Indycar don’t have as complex floors so they aren’t producing the same huge amounts of downforce and been spec chassis some of the negatives ground effects introduces can be better managed.
Indycar for example altered the shape of the floor and cut holes in it when the increased ground effect implementation on the DW12 saw an increase in cars getting airborn in high speed spins.
Jere (@jerejj)
17th September 2023, 4:25
Just because of one crash in 14 editions.