Renault Formula 1 driver Esteban Ocon believes adding cambered corners to Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit would help improve the quality of the racing.
While the Yas Marina Circuit boasts state-of-the-art facilities, its actual layout has been subject to a lot of criticism over the years.
In 2010 Fernando Alonso famously lost the world title to Sebastian Vettel partly because he was unable to overtake the much slower Renault of Vitaly Petrov in his Ferrari.
In subsequent years the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has seldom managed to deliver an exciting spectacle to bring the season to a fitting close.
Last weekend’s season finale delivered another lacklustre race, which prompted criticism from the likes of Daniel Ricciardo, who said the circuit should “play around with the layouts”.
Ricciardo’s Renault teammate Esteban Ocon puts down the lack of action to the number of off-cambered corners at the venue.
When asked by Autosport, Ocon believes adding positive camber to the 5.5 kilometre layout would be a big help for the drivers to race each other more closely.
“I heard it was pretty boring,” Ocon said. “It was very tough to overtake, that’s very clear, quite difficult to follow into the last sector.
“[With] all the low speed, off-camber [corners] you really need the grip of the car. That’s the key to passing there.
“I think for sure having a bit more camber in the corners would help, because they are all off-camber, so you really slide.
“Obviously it’s a challenge, but it’s not nice for following another car, it makes it tricky. I’m pretty sure we could do things better, but it requires work.”
Further proof to back up Ocon’s claims can be found in September’s Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello.
The revered motorcycle track had never hosted an F1 race before and its fast-flowing layout prompted fears that the race would become a procession.
However, Mugello’s banked corners allowed drivers to take different lines, which produced one of the more action-packed races on the improvised 2020 calendar.
“I don’t know why F1 went away from cambered corners in the new philosophy of tracks,” Carlos Sainz Jr said at the time.
“If you see Abu Dhabi, Russia, you see off-cambered corners that create pretty boring racing. Here you see these big cambers that allow drivers to take different lines in the corners.
“It allows everyone to just offset the car aerodynamically to the car in front, and it creates a much better show, and much better racing.”
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