F1 2008 - Turkish Grand Prix Preview

Let’s proceed to Turkey and on to one of the 2 anti-clockwise circuits on the F1 traveling road show. It is a circuit with a good combination of high speed and low speed corners and once again, passing is at a premium in Turkey. Turn 12 offers the best opportunity to overtake. This hairpin turn is right at the end of the long back straight and heavy breaking to turn 12 at the end offers the classic out breaking turning opportunity.

Aerodynamics
Aerodynamics is not quite as critical as in Spain, but is still very important. Turkey is traditionally a medium down force circuit especially in order to carry great speed through the famous turn 8. That’s the most critical area for aerodynamics grip and virtually the rest is a track that relies on mechanical grip, specifically through to turn 5 and 12, 13, and 14.

Tires
Tires are much a part of mechanical grip and in Turkey tires take a beating starting with turn 8. Opposite Spain where the track was hard on the left front, in Turkey the right front gets the most wear. The choice of compounds that Bridgestone are supplying is hard and medium just like in Spain. Previous years saw this race in the middle of the summer with a very hot track surface. Now that the date is in May, track surface is cooler and less demanding on the tires.

Suspension
Being so new, the curbs and pavement are very easy on the car making balance fairly routine (lets c) with a delicate balance between stiff settings for the high speed sections of the track and soft settings for the low speed sections.

Brakes
As I said in the beginning, turn 12 offers the best passing option because of the hard breaking from the long straight leading into it. Good brakes for a late breaking pass are a key. The rest of the circuit is fairly easy on the brakes. This trace however could see some of the same action as Australia with drivers struggling with brakes through high speed turns and I’m sure we will see puffs of burning rubber when drivers find themselves locking their brakes where traction control would have taken over in the past.

Engine
Turn 8 gets mentioned a lot at this circuit along with turn 12. For turn 8, constant good power delivery is important at high revs all through this turn to ensure a fast exit. Low rev to high rev is the key through turn 12. This hairpin will be the hardest on the engine as hard fast acceleration is needed.