Changes for the Red Bull Ring. (Hey! It's been a long time!)

[LuiggiSpeed]

How y'all doing?

So y'all probably watched last week's MotoGP race at Austria, where it became evident how poorly designed is that T2/T3 combo.

I predicted this 4 years ago when I first saw the track, that that area was not very safe and given a set of circumstances, something could happen.
Well it did.
In case you don't know what am I talking about, heres the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGPrHj1nPt0

Obviously T2 is a 180MPH LH kink followed by a super slow 1rst gear RH turn. They put 180 M of gravel along the possible trajectory plus a barrier + Air Fence, which did nothing to prevent a ghost bike to re-enter the circuit, avoiding a tragedy because some unexplainable luck. (Viñales and Rossi need to buy lottery tickets as soon as they go back home)

Back to topic, they ran the race this morning again (Due to Covid19, the schedule has been altered and some tracks are holding back to back races) , they did extend the barrier, added a tyre wall , Air Fence and a fence, but that was a band aid fix. That track needs a real fix, Red Bull has all the money in the world.

What would you do?

[LuiggiSpeed]

So I don't have al the niceties that I used to have in my computer so I had to rely on good old paintbrush to lay out the ideas.

One idea that seems fairly simple is to add a chicane to force slowdown before that area is reached. I also added a fangio on the run to T4 because every rider is complaining that that section with a downhill breaking area is on the limit of what a motorcycle can do (safely). Just to throw an idea. I don't want to break up too much the character of the track, but T2/T3 definitively needs to be changed for MotoGP.

The bikes braking systems are being pushed to the absolute limit and this morning we had a rider completely losing his brakes (catastrophic failure) and had to bail out the bike, which hit the airfence and exploded on fire at the end of T3

[tobyobi]

Originally Posted by LuiggiSpeed

The bikes braking systems are being pushed to the absolute limit and this morning we had a rider completely losing his brakes (catastrophic failure) and had to bail out the bike, which hit the airfence and exploded on fire at the end of T3

The bike that hit the airfence went into T1.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

There were 2 issues regarding this.

The circuit, but for me the riders are an issue as well.
They are too readily to go shoulder to shoulder. In NASCAR they say rubbing is racing but not on bikes.

Of the circuit, the brake failure is something that could happen to many one at any circuit, I’d say that the circuit design at T1 allowed the rider to safely “step off” without the rider hitting anything. As to the end barrier, given the long run off and an then an air-fence, I’m not sure what more needs done to that part of the circuit.

As to T3, the bike that destroyed itself clipped the edge of the air-fence and barrier behind it, that type of destruction would happen with a similar clip. The extension of the air fence put in place for the second event, would hopefully stop a riderless bike, but a clip type incident could still happen, only this time much closer to to the apex.

Why change the circuit with chicanes, sort out the riding standards. Look at the barriers type and placement first.

[S griffin]

I don’t think they need any layout changes either, the incident we saw the previous weekend isn’t one we really see that often and anyway they’ve put the barrier in place now. The Red Bull Ring is fine, just need to talk with the riders to make sure that doesn’t happen again

[LuiggiSpeed]

Originally Posted by tobyobi

The bike that hit the airfence went into T1.

I stand corrected! Thank you.

[LuiggiSpeed]

Originally Posted by S griffin

just need to talk with the riders to make sure that doesn’t happen again

I don't know if that will prevent a brake failure or rider mistake, IMHO that area is plain scary and the bikes arrive there much faster than a car because their power to weight ratio. We try to not hit barriers by design rather than make bigger barriers.

[LuiggiSpeed]

Originally Posted by ScotsBrutesFan

There were 2 issues regarding this.

The circuit, but for me the riders are an issue as well.
They are too readily to go shoulder to shoulder. In NASCAR they say rubbing is racing but not on bikes.

Of the circuit, the brake failure is something that could happen to many one at any circuit, I’d say that the circuit design at T1 allowed the rider to safely “step off” without the rider hitting anything. As to the end barrier, given the long run off and an then an air-fence, I’m not sure what more needs done to that part of the circuit.

As to T3, the bike that destroyed itself clipped the edge of the air-fence and barrier behind it, that type of destruction would happen with a similar clip. The extension of the air fence put in place for the second event, would hopefully stop a riderless bike, but a clip type incident could still happen, only this time much closer to to the apex.

Why change the circuit with chicanes, sort out the riding standards. Look at the barriers type and placement first.

The good thing about that little chicane is that it really doesn't change the circuit at all, F1 and other classes that may want to use the original track are perfectly capable of, motorcycles please take a right after T1

[LuiggiSpeed]

So it happened! And the modification was similar of what we posted, coool!