Formula 1

Tight Baku pit lane entry raises concerns for drivers

Published Jun. 16, 2016 11:07 a.m. ET

foxsports

Some F1 drivers have expressed concerns about the challenge provided by a tight pit entry at the Baku circuit.

Cars will have to peel off the high speed straight into a tight chicane, which is followed by another 100 meters of straight pit lane before the speed limit begins at the pit entry white line. The chicane is thus in effect part of the track and in race conditions will have to be taken as fast as possible.

"I think we never had a pit entry like this," said Felipe Massa. "Maybe Interlagos but it's high speed and it's easier for sure than what it is here. Here it's a big braking and you have this chicane which is free, in terms of lap time, and then you have the line after. So you need to learn in a better way."

"The entry looks a bit interesting," said Marcus Ericsson. "You're going to come there very, very fast without any margin. You don't want to see cars crashing going into the pitlane, and I think it's going to be a bit of a discussion after Friday. You are going to have to brake and turn, and then it's sharp right/left, then you brake again for the speed limit. If it's like that it's like that, I don't mind, but it could lead to big accidents going into the pits, and I'm not sure that's what we want."

"I think that's going to be quite cool. The pit entry is always a part where you can gain a bit of time. This one in particular I think a driver gets it right, and a driver doesn't go in there quite as committed or makes a mistake, there's easily half a second if not a second on that pit entry between a good one or a bad one. If you're battling someone in the race and you try an undercut or an overcut maybe what you do on the pit entry could dictate who wins that position. I like it actually, it looks good."

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