Leclerc and Hamilton at Madring
Last July 9th, Ferrari took advantage of a filming day to inaugurate the Madrid circuit, the ‘Madring’ which will make its debut in the Formula 1 World Championship on the weekend of September 13th.
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton split the 200 km required by the regulations on the 5.4-kilometer track, characterized by the beauty of as many as 22 corners. The first comments from the two drivers of the Prancing Horse were revealed by Garcia Abad, director of the Madrid circuit, to the Spanish Mundo Deportivo notebooks.
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Is the Monumental intimidating?
Very interesting, from Abad’s words, was the note from Lewis Hamilton: “He complained about the compression. I told him that the best solution to avoid it was to go a little slower, so there would be no problems.”
The reference is to the endless fast right-hand corner – the Monumental – a full 550 meters long, to be tackled with a 24% banking.
Charles Leclerc instead emphasized how “qualifying will be a huge challenge because you really fly very close to the walls”. Abad then stated that the Madrid circuit was liked by the drivers, although they faced a decidedly hot day, with air temperatures close to 37 degrees.
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Although the regulations heavily limit promotional activities on the track – forcing, for example, the use of Pirelli demonstration tires different from those of the race weekend –, Ferrari still managed to gather useful information by being the first to run on the Madrid circuit. On the other hand, the Filming Day also proved very useful for the race organizers: it allowed them to test the facilities and verify on site that every procedure and system worked perfectly. The event also dispelled doubts about construction delays, confirming that the racetrack will be completed without problems for the September Grand Prix.
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