NINETEEN RED FLAGS AS F3 GIVES MADRING ITS FIRST REAL TEST
Formula 3 has completed the first proper running at Madrid’s new Madring circuit, and the two-day test was stopped 19 times. Nine red flags came on Monday and ten on Tuesday, with ten different drivers making contact with the walls.
Not all of the stoppages were crashes. Eleven were, three were mechanical problems for Bruno Del Pino, Fionn McLaughlin and Matteo De Palo, and the rest were spins, debris or incidents that were never explained. Two things made the surface harder than expected. Construction work is still going on around the venue and dust was blowing onto the track, and strong winds added to the lack of grip.
The corners that kept appearing were spread around the lap rather than concentrated in one place. Turn 17 caught out Fernando Barrichello and Jin Nakamura on the first day. Turn 7 and Turn 14 became the recurring problems on the second, with Barrichello, Kanato Le, Mattia Colnaghi, Nicola Lacorte and McLaughlin all in trouble at one or the other. Freddie Slater hit the wall at Turn 10, Maciej Gladysz at the Turn 5 and 6 section, and Michael Shin at Turn 5.
That number of interruptions sounds alarming, but the stoppages are close to the reason the test existed. This was a dress rehearsal for the venue rather than for the cars. Marshals, medical staff, recovery crews and race control were all being put through real procedures on a circuit that has never held a race, and 19 red flags gave them a great deal of practice. The Madring had been the subject of persistent rumours that it would not be finished in time. After a Ferrari filming day in July and now this, it appears ready with two weeks to go.
On pace, Ugochukwu set the fastest lap of the test on Tuesday morning with a 1:49.034, two tenths clear of the field. Slater responded in the afternoon as teams switched to race-simulation running, going quickest in that segment on a 1:49.685. Slater had topped the opening day on a 1:50.343 before clipping the wall at Turn 10 and causing a stoppage himself.
Those two names matter beyond a test. Slater, driving for Trident, leads the championship from Campos driver Ugochukwu by only eight points, and Madrid is where the title will be settled. The Madring hosts the Formula 3 season finale, and the format there is unusual: two feature races instead of the normal sprint and feature, added to replace a Middle East round that was cancelled. That leaves more than 50 points available at a circuit neither driver had seen until this week.
Formula 1 arrives for the Spanish Grand Prix from 11 to 13 September.
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