São Bernardo Street Circuit - SP - Brazil

[cosmicpanda]

Originally Posted by Purist

Cosmicpanda, given the physics of the situation, chicanes seem to lead to more accidents at that given place than normally occurred on the pre-existing straight, corner, etc. For instance, I'm not sure there's been a "clean' first lap of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza since 1971 (The chicanes were installed for the 1972 season.). One big thing to remember is that fatalities in past decades usually had a lot more to do with the barriers and car construction than the track configuration. Simply put, it's a moot point to attempt to protect the driver at 150+mph when a hard impact at just 80-100-mph will likely have severe consequences. Also, chicanes with those old cars, especially those with drum brakes, would have been a VERY BAD IDEA.

There were chicanes at Monza before 1971, weren't there?

It's interesting that you talk about the physics of the situation, yet fail to consider that a car travelling at 80 mph would have less momentum than a car travelling at 150 mph. So, in a crash, say, the car travelling at 80 mph would require less force to slow down than the car travelling at 150 mph, and the driver would be less likely to be injured.

But I do think that a bad chicane can create boring racing.