Autódromo Internacional do Algarve

Part 2: The Circuit

This is the second of two features on the new Circuit do Algarve near Portimão, southern Portugal, written originally for Dailysportscar by Marcus Potts, and now reproduced here as part of our preview of Round 3 of the 2009 Le Mans Series. This part examines the circuit length-by-length, and was written after RML AD Group completed pre-season testing at the track in February 2009.

A simple circuit plan, like the one we’ve created here (see also footnote), simply cannot convey the three-dimensional nature of the Algarve circuit. Think Oulton Park, and then double it. Think Spa, but compress it into a much smaller area. Add in a Bathurst Dipper, or a Laguna Seca Corkscrew and a wide-tracked Dingle Dell, and you’ll start to get some idea of what it’s like to tackle the Autódromo do Algarve. It’s a succession of dips and dives, blind crests and hidden apexes – a veritable roller-coaster. In fact, when we interviewed drivers after last week’s LMS test, nearly every one of them used this simile, unprompted. It is, indeed, a theme-park ride for racecars.

Confusingly, for now anyway, the corners have no names, and are simply known as Turn X, or Curva Y, although the ninth corner has recently been named “Craig Jones”, after the Parkalgar Honda World Supersport motorcycle rider, who was killed in an accident at Brands Hatch last August. The double-apex 11-12 also earned a new name last week, after several drivers found it especially difficult, but we can’t reprint it here!

Dotted through this review are some quotes from drivers who were testing at the track last week, starting with this one . . .

Thomas Erdos
“Some really clever imagination has gone into the creation of this track,” suggests Thomas Erdos, who has been among the first sportscar drivers to try the circuit. “The surrounding landscape is the key to the circuit’s appeal. The layout reflects the style of the local roads, which are also a delight to drive! So many racetracks are flat and featureless, but this one exploits the contours of the land to create a circuit that is both physically demanding and technically challenging. The changes in elevation are, at times, quite extreme, and will in themselves add their own element of challenge, but I believe this will be a fantastic circuit to race on.”

Corner-by-Corner

At over 800 metres the pit straight is deceptively longer than it first appears. This is largely because the first 100 metres and final 200 are largely hidden by dips at either end, with the section between on a raised plateau. The brow at the start of the lap sets-in less than a hundred metres beyond the lighting gantry, just as the pitlane enters from the right. From here, the track dives down steeply into the first change of elevation, before rising up again slightly into Turn 1.

Turn 1 Approach

Turn 1 and Pitlane Exit

The bikes go straight on here, while the FIA homologated circuit makes a sharp right into Turn 2, a right-angle left, that heads back to rejoin the bikes at the fast right-handed Turn 3. This begins a gentle incline up a short straight towards the near-hairpin right at Turn 4.

Turns 1 and 2

Turn 4 entry

Turn 4

There’s likely to be some heavy braking and lock-ups into this deceptive little corner, which seems to wind up tighter as you go through it. Swinging out first to the left, and then crossing to the right, the line swings uphill and into a long sweeping left-hander before emerging blind onto the circuit’s second-longest straight. Running along the upper edge of the paddock, this completes the first sector, cresting gently alongside the VIP tower before diving down towards the hairpin at 6.

Turn 5

Turn 6 and through to Turn 7

The FIA track heads into the deeper of the two options here, and is somewhat reminiscent of a Melbourne Loop – although heading left, not right. This is likely to be a popular place for the prototypes to out-brake the GT cars.

Danny Watts
“I just love this track. It’s a real challenge, highly technical, and it offers every type of corner you can imagine. There’s just so much to take on board and learn!” says Danny Watts, who was testing the Strakka Racing Ginetta Zytek last week. “The undulations are great – it’s a bit like taking Paddock Hill Bend at Brands, but the wrong way! I can see that traffic could be a problem, especially with some of the blind bends and dips where it’s all up and over, so everyone will have to be even more careful than normal, especially those of us in the faster cars. One plus of having a night race here is that the usual distraction of having headlights in your mirrors all the time simply won’t apply. Dive over the next hill, and they’ll be gone! All in all, though, this is a mega circuit, and I’m really looking forward to racing it.”

Turn 7

Running up though the gears, the track rises once again, up past the VIP tower and into a flat left-hand sweep through 7 before cresting down into 8. No sooner down, than the track is rising again into, and through, the tight 120-degree Turn 9, “Craig Jones”.

Turn 9, Craig Jones

From here it’s a short but rapidly ascending rise over a totally blind crest that will have stomachs churning, and the unwary caught out should anyone lose it on the way down the other side.

The crest after Turn 9

It’s a short spat of perhaps a couple of hundred metres before the track bottoms-out and drivers enter the flat left that is Turn 10. This is another uphill section that terminates in what is possibly the most demanding corner on the track.

Turn 10

Turn 11

The double-apex Turn 11-12 will have many drivers scratching their heads and trying to determine which, of several, is going to be their ideal line. Not only is the entry almost blind, such is the uphill nature of the approach, but there is no obvious distinction between the end of Turn 11, and the start of 12. Some drivers appear to favour a wide and deep entry through 11 before cutting back and heading for the apex on 12, while others take 11 tighter and then aim for the wider exit from 12. Either way, all need to be well over to the right again (and soon) as the track dives steeply down once more towards Turn 13.

Turn 12

Turn 12 (top of picture) through to Turn 13

This is a flat-out left that rises steeply uphill towards Turn 14. This is nasty – in a taxing way, of course. The run up the hill seems strangely off-camber, while the length between the 160-degree 14 and the corkscrew right that is 15 is almost level. Between the two there’s an abrupt change between rising and then flattening out, and the marshal’s post on the outside of the corner looks deceptively close. Run-off here, as around most of the circuit, is the F1-favoured tarmac. In most instances it is very generous, and offers plenty of opportunity for correcting errors, but heading directly towards the steel sentry-box of Post 21 is a little disconcerting at first nevertheless.

Turn 14

Turn 15

Turn fifteen is an extended right-hander that completes a full 180 about-turn as it drops down from the highest point of the circuit towards the lowest. From the start of Turn 15, back down to the pit straight six hundred metres beyond, the vertical drop must be all of thirty metres, if not more. Cars will progressively gather speed as they sweep down through the final arc of Turn 16, but will have to be wary of the change in camber as they pass the upper entrance to the pitlane and the optional short-cut used by the bikers.

Turn 16

Xavier Maassen
“This circuit is fantastic – absolutely brilliant,” enthused Xavier Maassen, despite his early spin. Xavier was one of those drivers to get caught out by the bump through Turn 16, and it pitched him into a squealing pirouette from which he recovered, quite elegantly in fact, and pressed on for another lap. “No, it’s really great. It’s just like a roller-coaster ride. You’re up one moment, and then back down the next, up again, and then down, and it’s like that all the way. I absolutely love it, and the racing here is going to be wonderful. It’s not only great fun to drive, it’s also very challenging, and I can see a very promising future for this track.”

Keeping to the outer-most route, drivers will also have to learn the best line to take as they cross one of several places on the track where the newly-laid tarmac has suffered from subsidence. It’s a sad fact, and one that will certainly need addressing, but the Algarve track suffers from several very severe surface irregularities. The one through Turn 16 will catch out a few drivers as they make their first exploratory laps, but they’ll soon learn to avoid the worst of it. Harder to miss is the jaw-breaker on the main straight, almost directly beneath the lighting gantry. The drivers of firmly set-up cars, particularly the prototypes, will have to learn to grit their teeth and “bear it” as they crash over the bump, which has all the tact and subtlety of a “sleeping policeman”.

Nick Leventis & Peter Hardman
“This is just a fantastic circuit,” said Nick Leventis, Strakka Racing’s “young gun”. It’s like a roller-coaster from one end to the other, and while it’s a shame that the condition of the main straight detracts from what is otherwise a wonderful driving experience, it’s still such great fun. Flatten out that bump and it would be perfect!” Nick’s racing partner and mentor Peter Hardman agreed. “That bump on the straight almost spoils the rest of the circuit, and adds an unwelcome challenge. It would be hard to cope with an hour-long stint if you had to tackle that bump every couple of minutes, but it’s still a great track.” Not to belabour the point, but RML’s Mike Newton will also take away the memory of that bump above most others. “It’s a bit like having the air jacks knocked out from under you without warning,” he said. “The first time it happened, my jaw smashed shut so hard I thought I’d cracked a tooth.”

Parkalgar have been told of the situation, and it can only be hoped that, between now and August, they find the time to effect some repairs. The problem at the moment is that perfecting a set-up for the rest of the circuit will certainly be compromised by this one, very significant, irregularity. It is certainly a shame that a track that in every other respect has already gained the unmitigated admiration of everyone who’s ever driven round it, should leave a memory of discomfort and potential danger that it ill deserves.

Turn 16 and on to the pit straight

And that completes the circuit. After rising up from the depths at the exit of Turn 16, the main straight runs directly between the cavernous grandstand and pit complex towards the beginning of the next lap. How long does it take to get round? Well, that might be telling, but the Formula 1 teams who have tested at the Algarve have published figures of just under 1 minute 30 seconds, yet this seems somewhat slow in the light of the times being set by Strakka Racing’s LMP1 Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S last week, and RML’s LMP2 Mazda Lola B08/80. The track is certain to get faster as the season develops, so maybe we should expect pole in August to be quicker than this, perhaps by a second or two? Something to look forward to, certainly.

Pit Complex

To download high-resolution versions of the circuit plan specially created for this feature, please visit this dedicated web page.

With thanks to the circuit for many of the images illustrating this article. For more information about the Autodromo do Algarve, visit the official website.

If you missed Part 1, in which we considered the background to the constructionthe track, you can view it here. © All text is copyright Marcus Potts, CMC. All images are copyright Marcus Potts, CMC. See Alt (hover) text for captions and credits