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"There aren’t many guys in the
paddock who list Magny-Cours on their ‘favourite circuit’ list, which might
well be because it’s a bit too far away from a big international airport, or
whatever. But I’ve always enjoyed driving there, although since Formula One
teams agreed not to test there, for some reason I don’t understand, I
haven't driven Magny-Cours for some time.
 One
of the most interesting aspects of the circuit is that it makes a three-stop
strategy possible, and I guess we’ll have someone having a go at it this
weekend. The track’s grip level changes very quickly – as fast as Barcelona–
or maybe even worse. This makes set-up work and tyre choice more difficult
than in other places as the track can lose more than half a second’s-worth
of grip within 30 minutes. If that happens in the middle of your tyre test,
you can get lost really easily.
Anyway, as for the circuit itself… after the start/finish line we have a
sixth-gear flat-out left-hander with a double apex. This leads into the long
right-hander in fourth gear. It’s a very quick entry into the corner and if
you have good grip you can really carry a lot of speed into the corner. I
think the biggest enemy at the turn in would be a loose rear. In the middle
of the corner there’s usually understeer, so the key here is a neutral car,
which is easy to say, but if you push your equipment hard, it’s not that
easy to achieve.
So, we’re still in mid-corner of turn two, feeding the throttle in gently to
avoid unnecessary traction control or diff locking action, which can easily
upset the balance of your car. At this point, we’re still far from the exit,
with about 4.5g on the car and once we commit to the ‘pedal on the metal’ we
have to keep it open. Lifting off here is a really bad idea!
The straight that follows is not really long enough, but sometimes you can
be lucky and have a go at the guy in front for the hairpin. But usually the
hairpin is very slippery under braking and a bit bumpy. After the hairpin,
we have a very quick right-left chicane. The entry is really quick, not in
terms of speed but the way it happens. There’s not much braking before, and
you have to just commit to it, so I enjoy it very much. It’s usually fifth
gear.
I don’t know the name of the next corner, but I think we could call it “Niki
corner”, because it’s so tight, like all of us Austrians. Maybe that’s why I
like it. Some of my driver chums should really feel comfortable here! But in
fact it’s an easy corner to get the set up right for. It’s a mix of braking
not too late and hard, so the car is not pitching too much, and you need to
carry speed around the second-gear apex. At the exit you need to feed the
gas in slowly – in fact I think the driver is better off in this corner
driving the car with his feel for throttle, rather than relying on traction
control. God, I’ve screamed in this corner a few times, because the car
won’t do what you want it to do.
Ok, the next chicane is in fifth and right-left, very quick and nice. After
this you throw on the anchors into a slow second-gear right-hander, which is
very slippery most of the time. Out of there it goes up to sixth into
another slippery second-gear right-hander, then there’s a short burst of
throttle to the last chicane, where you have to attack the kerbs more than
some team bosses like to see. So, dear team bosses, chill out and let the
drivers just jump that kerb and if we crash it and look stupid doing so,
well then you have to pay for it! I remember once, Ron asked Kimi for his
credit card number in advance, but he never crashed it – why should he, or
me, or anyone of us?! Hang loose!” |
