Matt Nicholson wrote:
Is is my understanding from someone who drove there last weekend that the track is now even HARDER on equiptment. Like that's possible?!?!
Turn 8 has been paved, so you are now much faster through that turn which of course means you likely have more speed going into 11.
With the redesign, you are now scrubbing off SIGNIFICANTLY more speed at 14.
They opened up 14 a bit, allowing you to carry a little more speed onto the front straight, but that means you're now having to scrub more speed for turn 1.
I was extremely displeased with the pictures of the pads I saw after 6 20-minute sessions.
Why you gotta be a party-pooper Matt?
I haven't heard it put like that yet... I've heard lap times have gotten quicker by anywhere from 4 to 6 seconds and that the new T12-T14 is more Roebling-ish.
I'm not buying the faster in T11 because T8 is faster. Most cars will not be able to carry much more speed through the kink than they already did. The high HP cars already had to scrub off some speed before it... I'm not a good example, but I imagine most low HP cars were already in top gear through the kink as it was.
As far as T14... if you watch any of the videos that have come out since the re-configure, you'll see that almost everyone STILL takes the ultra-late apex and has not yet learned to use the additional 16 feet of asphalt on the inside of the turn. I would think (hope?) that the amount of speed needed to scrub off would be about the same as before, only this time, your entry and exit speeds are going to be a certain amount higher. For example, whereas before, you might brake from 90 down to 40... now, in theory, it would be from 100 to 50 (arbitrary, completely guessing at the numbers to make my point.) So again, I don't see how it should be any harder on brakes?