Madring Sees 19 Crashes in F3 Test and Real Madrid Footballers Witness It

The first official track run of the new Madring circuit is complete with FIA Formula 3 Championship cars in action across two days, that saw 19 red flag stoppages.

On preparedness side, the circuit seems all right after a two-day official running of F3 cars at the new Madring circuit. In the lead-up to the grand prix, the new home of F1 Spanish GP has been rumoured to be not ready on time for its debut on September 11-13.

However, after filming run from Ferrari in July and first official test run of F3 cars in August, it seems it is ready to host the F1 grand prix in two weeks time. Of course, there will be smaller things around the paddock and circuit that will need addressing, like for any brand new facility.

One of the bigger headlines emerging from the two-day F3 test has been the number of red flags that were displayed. As per F3’s own live blog, there were nine red flags on Day 1 and 10 on Day 2, which was combination of car stoppages, crashes, spins and debris clearance.

From the nine red flags on Day 1, six of them were for crashes/spins at different point. The drivers involved were Christian Ho (barrier contact), Fernando Barrichello (barrier contact at Turn 17), Jin Nakamura (barrier contact at Turn 17), Maciej Gladysz (barrier contact at Turn 5 & 6), Freddie Slater (wall contact at Turn 10) and an unnamed driver spin.

There was another red flag for Bruno Del Pino stopping at Turn 12, while reasons for two other were not disclosed. As for Day 2, there were five red flags for crashes, with Michael Shin (wall contact at Turn 5) involved along with Hiyu Yamakoshi (barrier contact at Turn 11), Nicola Lacorte (wall contact at Turn 14), Kanato Le (barrier contact at Turn 7) and Barrichello (barrier contact at Turn 7).

There were three spins, with Barrichello (Turn 8) involved along with Mattia Colnaghi (Turn 7) and an unnamed driver, while there were two stoppages involving Fionn McLaughlin and Matteo De Palo. It brings the total to 19 across two days, as opposed to some reports noting all that in a day.

As per Spanish reporter Carlos Miquel, the F3 drivers felt good vibes driving around Madring, which they termed it as fast and demanding. The local police shared a drone view of the F3 cars going around, while DAZN spotted an unusual problem faced by Real Madrid football team training nearby.

As per the timesheet, the first day saw Audi F1 development driver Slater set the benchmark of 1m50.343s in his Trident machine. It was eventually beaten by Campos Racing’s Ugo Ugochukwu on Day 2, who set the best time of 1m49.034s – a good 1.309s quicker on a rubbered track.

Slater was impressed by the running on a bit ‘old-school’ type circuit, where a driver can enjoy pushing to the limit. “I think it was a really positive day,” he said to F3 website. “I think this track is incredible to drive, it’s a bit old-school, got some interesting corners and it’s got a lot of character to it.

“It’s probably one of the most enjoyable on a push lap on the calendar. I’m just enjoying it. I’m having fun. Today has been a really positive day. I’m just learning about the track and trying to adapt my driving style to it and also adapt the car a bit to it.

“I’ve actually had a couple of experiences around street tracks, obviously, Macau, Monaco this year, and it’s about going out, being on the limit, but not being too over the limit that you end up risking crashing. I think that was very important this morning to build up to it, to get multiple laps under the belt so you actually could work out what was going on.

“I think it’s been a positive way of building up to it. But I love the whole thing. I think it’s incredible. I think it’s one of the best tracks I’ve driven. Like all the best tracks, like your Macau’s, your Monaco’s, the tracks that have got character, and I think that’s what’s the most special thing that they’ve done here. I can’t name a favourite part, but I do like the Turn 5 and 6 chicane,” summed up Slater.