General
Masi laughs at idea for racing in opposite direction
- GPblog.com
In order to keep the upcoming F1 season with two races on the same tracks as interesting as possible, it has been suggested from different angles in recent months to drive in opposite directions on certain tracks. Michael Masi explains why this has never been possible.
"I did have to have a giggle when I saw some comments about some circuits running backward", he says in the Vodcast of Sky Sports F1. To make such a thing possible on an average circuit, there is so much to be done in terms of safety that it wouldn't be worth it.
"All of the circuits, and the safety infrastructure is designed - be it the walls, flag posts - around the cars running in a certain direction. Even when it comes to the openings when a car breaks down, if you're running the opposite direction you're effectively running into a blunt wall."
You can't just turn around
"While it would be nice to have circuits that run both ways in some areas, it's a much more challenging task and would involve literally changing walls of places. The amount of work would be astronomical to make it happen, let's put it that way."
The circuit of Misano in Italy is a good example. Before the return of MotoGP there, they changed the direction more than ten years ago. The layout of the circuit remained pretty much the same, but almost the whole complex had to be rebuilt.