The design lessons F1 is hoping to learn at Algarve’s ‘three-dimensional’ track

2020 Portuguese Grand Prix

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The Autodromo do Algarve, which is playing host to this weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix, is the second of the two venues Formula 1 is visiting in its disrupted 2020 season which have never previously held rounds of the world championship.

With much of the racing world beyond Europe’s borders ruled out due to Covid-19, Formula 1 has seized the opportunity to visit unfamiliar venues and take advantage of the opportunities they offer to glean valuable real-world data about how the contours of different circuits shape the races they hold.

F1 has meticulously researched circuit design from a safety point of view for many years. But the variables which lead to great races are harder to define.

Are long DRS zones bookended by tight corners really the only way to create overtaking? What roles do camber and gradient play? Mugello – the other new venue F1 visited last month – was praised for its cambered corners. At Algarve the key dimension is elevation change.

F1 last visited the track for a test session over a decade ago. Ahead of its return for the Portuguese Grand Prix – reinstated to the schedule following a 24-year absence – the track was resurfaced by Dromo, the circuit design company F1 is increasingly turning to.

Algarve International Circuit, Portugal, 2020
Algarve International Circuit, Portugal
Company founder Jarno Zaffelli likened the track, which lies close to the town of Portimao, to another Dromo project which should have appeared on the 2020 F1 calendar: The revamped Zandvoort in the Netherlands. But the Algarve course has even more pronounced crests and falls than the Dutch venue.

“Portimao has a lot of elevation changes,” says Zaffelli. “Not much in lateral – there is banking but there are not that much, let’s say 8-10% maximum. The fact is that we have slopes, downhill up to 16%.

“So when you’re going down, especially after between turn eight and turn nine and between 11 and 12, you are going down a lot then going up. So it is very much a rollercoaster. If you are speaking about Zandvoort as a roller coaster effect, Portimao is a rollercoaster effect, but in another way up and down instead of right and left.”

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A two-dimensional top-down track map of the circuit disguises this key characteristic. “It is a very nice track,” says Zaffelli. “It was a surprise for me because on the layout from the top, you cannot recognise it. But when you are there you can see the elevation changes.”

Autodromo do Algarve, 2020
Steep falls disrupt sight lines into corners
The steepness of the changes in gradient adds a challenging dimension many modern F1 circuits lack. “Almost all the corners are blind. So it is very interesting and it is fun to drive this track.”

Only one driver on the entry list this weekend – Sergio Perez – raced at this track when F1 feeder series GP2 (now Formula 2) visited it in 2009. He will no doubt have noted a key difference between that race and this weekend at turn one.

The course offers two different configurations at this point. Where GP2 used the slow hairpin, F1 will use a much quicker right-hander. Mercedes expect drivers will only need to drop two gears for this high-speed flick.

The choice of the quicker corner flies in the face of conventional wisdom regarding the type of curve needed to facilitate overtaking, which insists that slow corners which force drivers to brake for longer are needed. There is a significant difference about Algarve’s turn one, however – it is preceded by a steep downhill plunge. This makes it unlike similar corners seen at other circuits, such as Bahrain, which F1 is already due to visit twice this year anyway.

Lance Stroll, Racing Point, Autodromo do Algarve, 2020
Most drivers have little recent experience of the track
“A flat track is giving you a component that is very easily predictable, is easy to simulate,” says Zaffelli. “When you start to work in 3D, when you start to work with this kind of elevation and you start to work with blind corners and tracks that are not well known for the drivers it’s much easier for the drivers [to make mistakes].”

Daniel Ricciardo, who clinched the British F3 title at the track in 2009, is confident overtaking will be possible. “I was here in F3 but I think F1 is going to be really cool,” he said. “Long straight, DRS. I think the last corner will be full [throttle] so hopefully it’s a good chance to catch onto a good tow and overtaking should be alright, even though turn one’s really quick.”

Seeing the cars pop up and over Algarve’s many crests will also enhance the perception of speed – always a difficult thing to convey in television coverage of modern, wide tracks with ample run-off spaces. The latter is a potential downside as far as turn one is concerned, however – expect to see plenty of drivers being penalised for violating track limits on its generous asphalt run-off.

Using the ‘standard’ configuration of turn one at Algarve gives F1 the opportunity to learn lessons about track design it would miss at familiar venues. “They are keeping the usual tracks as they were and they are trying to use the new ones as a potential to exploit new track concepts,” says Zaffelli. “So they are gathering data, the guys that are led by Pat Symonds are making a lot of experience in understanding how much the track is involved in the show that is given.”

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GP2 and the now-defunct A1 Grand Prix visited Algarve in its early years, while Formula 3 series made occasional visits. But the track surface deteriorated over time, and Dromo were called in to oversee a full resurfacing which was completed last month.

Autodromo do Algarve, 2020
Dromo oversaw a full resurfacing of the Algarve circuit
“When it was built was quite a world record because it took seven months,” says Zaffelli. “They were very fast. Maybe too fast for settlement of the asphalt and the flatness required by race tracks in modern days especially – for bikes, not for cars.”

The need to bring the track up to standard for motorbikes arose when Moto GP followed F1’s lead and also added Algarve to its reorganised 2020 calendar. The track surface, which had been patched in various trouble spots over the years, therefore needed to be brought up their standards.

“When Formula 1 accepted the opportunity to go into Portimao they basically asked us to fix that for the race. And then Moto GP came over. So our task initially was just to fix it for Formula 1 and then they told us, OK, also Moto GP is coming. OK, very good but the tolerances are different – for bikes [they] are more restricted.”

With the work completed, Algarve is ready to finally hold its first Formula 1 race weekend. It had the misfortune to come into existence at the end of the noughties just as the global financial downturn caused by the credit crunch was beginning to bite. F1 teams agreed to a limit on testing, slashing their annual mileages outside of race weekends – bad news for circuit owners hoping to rent their tracks out.

As a result, F1 cars haven’t lapped the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve for over decade. What the sport discovers when it takes to the track this weekend may help influence the circuits of the future.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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15 comments on “The design lessons F1 is hoping to learn at Algarve’s ‘three-dimensional’ track”

  1. Biskit Boy (@sean-p-newmanlive-co-uk)
    23rd October 2020, 8:33

    If F1 is in the mood to learn and experiment then it should switch off DRS for this race and see what happens.

    1. @sean-p-newmanlive-co-uk A better circuit of choice for this purpose would be Bahrain’s standard layout.

  2. T1 is more or less the same as Hockenheim’s equivalent speed and angle-wise.

    1. So they follow the outer line? I thought they’d use that inwards chicane option.

  3. Three Lessons:
    1. No
    2. Hermann Tilke
    3. Tracks

    1. COTA and Baku are okay, and Sepang was pretty good too. Valencia was terrible though.

      1. Turkey was decent. Shanghai is quite bad, Abu Dhabi hands down the worst. Sochi not far off. His trademark of super long straights followed by tight turns in the middle part of the track is a bore

  4. @f1lauri @ferrox-glideh Bahrain and Istanbul Park too.

    1. Also Indian GP track was decent.

    2. Jose Lopes da Silva
      23rd October 2020, 10:59

      Yes, one day people will realise Tilke has nothing to do with overtaking issues. Perhaps one day.

      1. Gavin Campbell
        23rd October 2020, 16:50

        Although he has made some bizarre decisions over the years, including the layout of Abu Dhabi.

        For all the simulation tools etc. he became a bit hit and miss. But a lot of the problem was always what people wanted – a lot of those tracks needed layouts for bike racing (and thus massive run offs) – or they wanted to run lots of track day experience alongside F1 so they needed to have nothing you could hit. The majority of those race tracks had to be designed to fulfill a commercial purpose that F1 head lined but was only there for 1 weekend out of 52.

        But what has finally sunk in is the lack of sporting penalty for these safe run off zones. What they need to do is more like Monaco T1 – an escape road (possibly fanning out incase you get it very wrong) of asphalt run off and then gravel/grass/other non-grippy surface to act as penalty where the barrier is. IE if you look above you can see where the Tec-Pro barrier is that is the length of tarmac run off that should be provided on the outside of the corner. Simply because you either are making the corner, not making it at all and need the safe stuff or you have over-cooked it but won’t be going sufficiently fast to have gravel cause a major saftey issue.

      2. Jose Lopes da Silva – are you one of Herman Tilke’s employees?

  5. F1 – Learn? Oxymoron of the year.
    Best lesson they still can’t get?
    Free to air tv coverage ban was the worst ever
    self harm F1 inflicted on itself.

  6. zaffelli no spectacle benefit from the elevation changes, tv director does not allow, some shots are the same as sbk but the problem is that any time a car is on a hot lap the camera is zoomed all the way in, feels like I’m watching radio.

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