Zandvoort – a Rollercoaster Ride
Posted on September 2, 2022
Orange Army Ready to Pounce
IT’S OFTEN SAID ZANDVOORT is more of a rollercoaster than a racetrack. It’s undulating and bumpy – despite being newly resurfaced – and chockers with ambitious levels of camber that make the Dutch track unlike any other on the Formula One calendar.
Don’t know about you, but I’m heartily sick of 2023 silly season so I’m steering clear of the midfield seats ruckus until we get some clarity from the Alpine/Piastri saga from the FIA’s Contract Recognition Board, possibly Monday.
While the off-track white noise continues to overshadow the frantic return from the mid-season break, the circus has quietly moved from Belgium to the Netherlands for round 15 of the championship.
Best known for its steep banking, Circuit Zandvoort it proved a spectacular addition last year, and attracted Max Verstappen’s orange army like bees to honey.
Given their favourite son is now F1 World Champion, more than 100,000 steadfast fans are expected this weekend and anything could happen.
Zandvoort Turns 3 and 14 Banked More Steeply than Indianapolis
Circuit Zandvoort – a renovated historical circuit nestled in the sand dunes of the northwest Dutch beach on which it’s built – is just three hours northwest of Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps.
But the challenge between these two tracks is huge.
Zandvoort is around two-thirds the length of Spa and a dramatically different circuit – being all about downforce performance rather than efficiency or straight-line speed. It’s also a track that rewards momentum and rhythm rather than just traction and exit speed and the banking generates compression in a similar style to Eau Rouge.
It’s worth noting that turns three and 14 at Zandvoort are banked more steeply than the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, adding an extra dimension to the challenge both for the driver and technically.
New car-tyre package should make overtaking easier this year
“Zandvoort’s most challenging parts for tyres are the banked Turns 3 and 14, which are taken at high speed and place sustained combined forces on the car: downforce as well as lateral demands.
“Along with the other overall demands of the circuit layout, this is why we have nominated the hardest three compounds in the range for only the fourth time in 2022, after Bahrain, Spain and Great Britain.
“The new car-tyre package this season should make overtaking easier on a track where it was hard to pass last year with most drivers stopping just once to maintain track position.
“This time there could be more of a focus on the softer compounds – which might lead to more two-stoppers and drivers pushing even harder.” Mario Isola
• The three hardest compounds have been chosen for Zandvoort: C1 as the P Zero White hard, C2 Yellow medium, and C3 Red soft.
• This year there’s a bigger gap between the C1 and C2 compounds than there was previously: another reason why teams might concentrate more on the two softer compounds this weekend.
• The banking on Turns 3 and 14 is around 18 degrees: by way of comparison, the historic banking on the old circuit at Monza (up next on the calendar) is roughly 30 degrees on average. Of other modern circuits, Indianapolis has nine degrees of banking and Jeddah has 12 degrees.
• Zandvoort generates some big g forces all around the 4.2-kilometre track: braking into Turns 1 and 11 is a deceleration of about 5g, while Turn 7 also provides lateral forces of around 5g.
Zandvoort, Netherlands
• As the name suggests, Zandvoort can be affected by sand blowing onto the surface: the coastal location can also lead to frequent changes in wind direction.
FORMULA 2
PIRELLI HAS NOMINATED the P Zero White hard and Red soft tyres for F2 drivers, each with five sets of slicks tyres (three hard and two soft) across the weekend. The 29-lap Saturday sprint is followed by Sunday’s the 40-lap feature race.
FORMULA 3
THREE NEW SETS of P Zero Yellow mediums, plus another set of mediums carried over from the previous round for use in free practice. Saturday’s 21-lap sprint is followed by Sunday’s feature race over 26 laps.
SUPERCARS COMMISSION
MICHAEL MASI, the man at the centre of one of the biggest controversies in motorsport history, has been appointed as the new independent Chair of the Supercars Commission, effective immediately.
“I view this role as continuing the amazing work already done by Neil and the Commission to lead Supercars into a brand-new era with the introduction of the Gen3 Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang,” Masi, 44, said.
“I’m very proud to have been appointed to his role and look forward to working with the key stakeholders in the sport to ensure the future is an exciting one for our teams, partners, sponsors and most importantly the fans.”
The Commission makes key technical and sporting decisions for the Australian series.
GT World Challenge
PERTH’S JORDAN LOVE suits up this weekend at Hockenheim in Germany for Round eight of the GT World Challenge, the penultimate race of the Endurance Cup. A field of 49 supercars, exclusively equipped with Pirelli tyres, is confirmed for the championship’s first trip to the 4.6 km historic German venue. Jordan again races alongside teammates Jannes Fittje and Alain Valente in the #4 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the Silver Cup. Last time out a small electrical failure stymied their chance for class victory.
“The 24 Hours of Spa was a bitter pill for us to swallow, running in the podium places, and with a shot of victory, it was a tough result to take. However, we can take lots of positives from our performance there and take that to Hockenheim this weekend. This is my first time at the circuit but I’m confident I can get up to speed quickly and that we can pick up a good result here.” – Jordan Love
You can catch the three-hour race on Sunday at GT World Challenge Europe website.
EDITED by AC
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