Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider, Tito Rabat, is confident of a strong showing in front of his home crowd in Barcelona this weekend, following a successful test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya only two weeks ago.
The track layout has been revised for this weekend's GP. The F1 layout at turn 10 will be used again this year, making the entry both tighter and slower. The switch was made on safety grounds following discussions in the safety commission meeting on the Friday evening of last year's race.
The changes also include the addition of the RACC chicane between the stadium section and the final corner.
Previously this section was two fast, downhill rights through which the riders built up speed, but now it's a right-left-right slow speed chicane, almost the opposite of what was there before.
The private Barcelona test was the first opportunity for the MotoGP riders to sample the revised, slower layout and Rabat made the most of the two days to acquaint himself with the new layout.
"The most important thing is that the revised configuration is much safer than the previous layout, but it does take away something from the track," he explains. "Before turn 10 was more long, with a faster entry and higher corner speed. But the wall was too close, so they had to make changes to the corner because it was impossible to increase the run off area."
"Now it's more stop and go, with a tight angle, a bit like the Circuit of the Americas in Texas. But it's not just the angle that makes it different; the asphalt changes as you come into the new turn and there are some bumps mid-corner that you need to be aware of. It would be easy to get things wrong and crash, but now the crash would be much slower than previously."
"The corner is very technical now. You need to be very precise with your line and feed in the gas smoothly on exit. The downside is that turn 10 used to be a corner where you could pass on the brakes, but now it is impossible."
