The Albert Park circuit in Melbourne will undergo a series of tweaks ahead of this year’s Australian Grand Prix. With the originally planned season opening race in Australia pushed out until November, race organisers are making the most of the postponement to make some tweaks to the circuit.
Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit replaced Adelaide as the host of the Australian Grand Prix in 1996, and has remained on the calendar ever since. However, the circuit has never been particularly easy for overtaking and the organisers are now revealing some tweaks they have planned to help with the racing – no small task, as the circuit utilises existing roads as a street circuit. These works are also being undertaken as part of civil construction work as part of the Albert Park Master Plan as laid out by the local government.
Phase one of the work is already complete, with the pit lane area having been widened. The next stage starts on Monday, February 22nd, and will entail the circuit modifications being made. This work will continue until July, before resurfacing of the circuit is carried out in the aftermath of the 2021 Grand Prix. The circuit has never been resurfaced since joining the F1 calendar.
The changes to the Melbourne circuit include tweaking and tightening Turns 1 & 3, as well as a complete re-alignment of the entry onto the back straight to remove Turn 8 entirely. The third sector will see further tweaking, with the exact changes to be made to be outlined soon.
“We had to look at what the scheduling of works was before or after the November date, and what we could fit in,” Australian Grand Prix Corporation CEO Andrew Westacott told local publication Speedcafe.com.
“The ability to make the geometric changes, the civil changes, the realignment changes, as well as doing the resurfacing wasn’t possible before the temperature dropped to levels where you can’t lay the asphalt mixes appropriately. This is not just your common garden variety asphalt mix you put on normal roads, they have stiffer binders, they have different characteristics, they have to be laid in a particular manner, and you have to do those when there’s warmer months.”
“So what needed to be done was, with the phasing, we got the work done pre-Christmas which was pit lane widening. Those works are completed and were very, very well done and constructed. We’re now doing the geometric changes and we will put an asphalt mix down consistent with the asphalt surface in those areas.”
“Post the November Grand Prix we will re-asphalt the surface with an asphalt mix that has a higher level of abrasiveness than the current mix that is down there, and has been down there since 1995.”
