[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Someone mentioned the Variante Ascari earlier and to be fair that seems a bit more like a complex than a chicane, albeit a very small one where drivers can't do much

Yes - in post #4:

Originally Posted by S griffin

The Variante Ascari could easily be made into a tight double apex left hander

I'm not sure exactly how you are envisaging this change - maybe the 1972 layout (when it was referred to as the 2' chicane):



It only lasted for two seasons in that layout, before being opened out to its current configuration.

I appreciate that things have changed a lot in terms of safety since then, but I think we should still remember the lessons of history [www.monzanet.it]:

'Consequent to this development of cars [wings, power, tyres] and in concert with the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers' Association), two chicanes were built in 1972 for the purpose of reducing speed at the entrance to the fastest curves on the track, the "Grande" curve at the end of the grandstand straight and the "Ascari" curve. These chicanes had a selective function for cars and drivers; the first was located on the grandstand straight at the junior cut-off entrance and consisted of a S on the 24-metre width of the track made by means of two consecutive central islands, bounded by guardrails and separated by a passage 9 metres wide.

The second was built at the entrance to the Ascari curve and consisted of an elongated S, made up of a rather tight short-radius left curve followed by a right curve with a larger radius and an approximately 80° bend, and finally a 52° left curve leading into the central straight. [...]

The chicanes, however, proved to be a makeshift solution and were responsible for numerous accidents and collisione, although not serious. And then, just as the cars had done, motorcycles too, at the end of the seventies, adopted large tyres with high adherence-coefficient compounds, and later with smooth-treads which, as they let riders lean over further, improved speed in the curves while considerably increasing the risk of falling and hence the number of accidents.

But the motorcycles continued to use the road track without chicanes and, in the first half of 1973, there were two serious accidents on the "Grande" curve. The first happened in the Grand Prix of Nations; shortly after the start of the 250 class Renzo Pasolini had a piston seizure which caused many to fall and in which Pasolini himself and the Finnish rider Jarno Saarinen lost their lives. Forty days later, in a juniores race the "gentlemen " riders Chionio, Galtrucco and Colombini fell and were fatally injured at the samepoint.'

[...]

Following the serious situation created for cars, too, by the repeated, if not serious, accidents, which showed the ineffectiveness of the chicanes, in the three following years important work was undertaken to replace them with three layout changes or variants to slow down the track. In 1974 the chicane of the "Vialone" was completely revised, replacing the tight initial curve with a longer one and modifying the subsequent layout; on the continuation of the approaching straight a broad run-off area was created with a sand layer and catch fences. In 1976, to replace the chicane located on the grandstand straight, a variant was created in the section of the same straight after the beginning of the north curve of the speed track, consisting of a succession of two left curves alternating with two right curves with radius and angle such as to reduce speed in that section to about 100 Km/h at the inlet and 120 Km/h at the end. Top speed on the approaching straight of the "Grande" curve was thus reduced from over 300 Km/h to about 180 Km/h. At the same time, another variant was built at approximately 300 metres from the entrance to the first Lesmo curve, consisting of a left curve followed by a right curve and forcing reduction of top speed in the following straight from 280 Km/h to 180 Km/h.

These two variants were also given adequate runoff areas with sand layers and catch fences. The three variants, which brought the length of the road track to 5,800 metres, considerably reduced practicable speed.'


I would urge anyone who is suggesting changes to the track to remember (and hold respect for) the past and what it can teach us about today.