Tuesday, October 11, 2011

GreenBkk.com Mercedes GP | KOREA PREVIEW: ROSS: “THE VENUE COMBINES IMPRESSIVE FACILITIES WITH AN INTERESTING AND DEMANDING TRACK LAYOUT FOR THE DRIVERS AND ENGINEERS”

KOREA PREVIEW: ROSS: “THE VENUE COMBINES IMPRESSIVE FACILITIES WITH AN INTERESTING AND DEMANDING TRACK LAYOUT FOR THE DRIVERS AND ENGINEERS”

RACE NEWS // 11.10.2011


The Korean Grand Prix, Round 16 of the 2011 Formula One World Championship, will take place on Sunday 16 October at the Korea International Circuit in the South Jeolla region. Just seven days after the Japanese Grand Prix, the Yeongam track will host its second race after making its debut on the calendar in 2010.

At 150 m, the run to the first corner is the third-shortest of the year - after Monaco and Turkey (both 120 m). Last year's race featured 26 laps behind the Safety Car, equivalent to 146 km or 47.3% of the race distance. At the time, this was the most laps completed behind the Safety Car in a race - until exceeded in Canada 2011.

Ahead of the Grand Prix, and having completed the weekend in Suzuka, the team has now packed up and headed to South Korea for the second leg of the season’s final set of double-header races. Ross said: “The Korea International Circuit made its debut on the calendar last year, and the venue combines impressive facilities with an interesting and demanding track layout for the drivers and engineers. We delivered a strong race performance in Suzuka after not the smoothest of weekends, so our focus in Korea will be on getting the most of our current technical package and continuing our recent run of results.”

For Norbert: “The Korea International Circuit at Yeongam presents a very complete challenge for the cars and the drivers: long straights in the opening sector, and then a much tighter second half of the circuit, which includes some blind corners and tricky, narrow sections between concrete walls. This contributes to making the average lap speed one of the lowest of the year for a permanent circuit, at around 205kph. Last year's inaugural race saw very challenging weather conditions and four Safety Car deployments; although we hope for better conditions this year, there remains a reasonable chance of Safety Car periods due to the limited run-off areas. Indeed, the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Safety Car has been deployed in each of the past four races. We enjoyed a stronger weekend in Suzuka and delivered quite a competitive team performance. Our challenge will be to perform at this level on a very different type of circuit and, as we have managed at three of the last four races, to finish in the points among the top three teams.”

Credit: Mercedes GP (www3.mercedes-gp.com)

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