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The renovated Zandvoort race track, which is set to host the returning Dutch Grand Prix during the 2020 Formula One World Championship, will feature a banked corner, which hasn’t been seen in the sport since the United States GP was hosted in Indianapolis.
This has predictably led to concerns about a repeat of the 2005 event at Indy, during which teams running on Michelin tires pulled out of the race due to safety concerns, but Dutch sporting director Jan Lammers says it will not be an issue.
“This will definitely be a unique track,” he said. “No modern circuit has a banked corner integrated into the actual design of the track. So May 2020 will not only be the comeback of the Dutch Grand Prix, but also a comeback of the banked corner in F1.”
Lammers added that race organizers had been talking to Pirelli, F1’s sole tire supplier since 2010, on a “daily basis” on the subject of the extra loads that banked corners can exert on the tires, which had been the catalyst for massive controversy at the 2005 United States Grand Prix.
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Several cars had crashed in practice because of Michelin tire failures caused by the extra load. At the time, teams used either Michelin or Bridgestone tires, and unable to come to a short-term compromisee with the FIA, Michelin teams were forced to withdraw from the race in the face of safety and criminal liability concerns.
As a result, only six of 20 drivers competed, which was seen as a farce and certainly did not help the credibility of the sport in a country whose motorsport audience was more interested in NASCAR and IndyCar. By 2007, Michelin had withdrawn from the sport, and by 2008, so had Indianapolis.
Back in the Netherlands, which hasn’t been a stop on the F1 calendar since 1985, the Zandvoort circuit will boast three banked corners, one with an angles of up to 18 degrees. But Lammers says this won’t be an issue like Turn 1 at Indianapolis.
“First of all, the corner in Indianapolis is much longer than this one,” he said. “So the overall tire load was much heavier there. And second, the corners in Indianapolis have some kind of linear banking. Over here we have progressive banking, almost comparable to a bobsleigh track.”
“We talked to Pirelli as well,” he added. “Basically from the first moment we thought of creating a banked corner. We speak to them on a daily basis and share all the updates and information we have.”
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