Quote:
Originally Posted by greeny12
It's only my personal opinion but I cannot help thinking that the seeds of this weekend's tragedy were sown with the most recent track layout change, which remodelled Tertre Rouge into a faster, more flowing corner.
When I first went to Le Mans in 1996 I loved watching from the inside of the track at night (by the little dark tunnel) as the cars slammed their anchors on and seemed to defy physics in slowing for the old corner.
When I went back for the first time after the circuit change that had totally changed and now they just roared past. Maybe Rocky's big accident there in 2007 should have been treated as a warning? Maybe not, I don't know.
It does seem to me, though, that in its new incarnation we now have a pure racing circiut corner but with public road safety margins (i.e. armco and trees).
I hope the full results of the ACO investigation are made known...
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I just posted this in the other track related thread, maybe more relevant here...
The thing is with Tertre Rouge is they made it wider to give it more run off but the consequence is rather than being a corner its now a sweep...and a lot more faster than it ever used to be. Its certainly impressive to watch but the speed that some of the prototypes can take thru there is scary at times.
The run down from the Dunlop Bridge to the Esses, perhaps older visitors could tell us if there were many incidents there, but certainly in the last few years we've had Audi, Lister, Krohn...all having major moments. The fact that its no longer such a sharp corner at the bottom means the cars have more chance to speed up thru the Esses, hence the 30 yard zone rouge on the outside and probably even more speed being carried into an already faster Tertre Rouge...all done as i recall to make it safer for motorbikes on the Bugatti Circuit.