MotoGP is running on a new layout for this year’s Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring, thanks to the addition of a chicane between Turn 1 and the ferocious-on-a-bike fast left kink as riders climb up the Austrian hills away from the pits.
The changes nullifies one of the best corners on the championship calendar and radically slows down the approach to what was previously Turn 3.
But it’s something that factory Ducati rider Jack Miller says was a necessary evil to protect the race’s spot on the calendar.
The new chicane has come at the insistence of riders, thanks in large part to the horrendous crash between Johann Zarco and Franco Morbidelli in 2020 that nearly ended in tragedy.
Zarco made contact with Morbidelli as he overtook him, and both Zarco and Morbidelli went down at ultra-high speed, sending their bikes barrelling towards the next corner.
The tumbling bikes narrowly avoiding both Valentino Rossi and then-Yamaha team-mate Maverick Vinales at Turn 3 by mere centimetres, and it opened up riders’ eyes to the danger of the corner and immediately prompted calls for a modification that has taken until 2022 to put into place.
We have no idea how Rossi and Viñales avoided this, we're just so thankful they did.
Morbidelli and Zarco tangle on the straight and crash out.
Both riders are up and walking.#AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/izLDfWq9aY
— MotoGP on BT Sport (@btsportmotogp) August 16, 2020
While the new, tight right-left chicane is far from an ideal solution to the problem, it’s nonetheless one that Miller (traditionally perhaps one of the least safety-conscious riders on the grid) says was unavoidable – even if it has come at the cost of a corner that he loved.
“I’m happy that they’ve done something before it was too late, because we’ve had a couple of close calls,” he said.
“The bike is shaking, carrying on with the wind coming off others at 350km/h, and it wasn’t ideal to have us coming in there at those angles. It’ll definitely be an improvement.
“It’s safer, it’s going to keep us coming back here a lot longer, and the GP itself is fantastic: one of the biggest crowds we get all year, they love MotoGP up here, and we need to have something in this part of the world.
“It was getting dangerous, and the track responded with a safe alternative.”
As an added bonus, it will produce even better racing, according to Miller, who says that while the chicane itself won’t be an overtaking spot, the slower entry speed into the almost 180-degree corner at the top of the hill will mean more lunges on the brakes.
“I think it’ll be better and I don’t think there are any real negatives to come from it,” he explained.
“It’ll make the racing better, because passing won’t happen as much there but it’ll open up the next corner to make that more of a passing spot.
“I don’t think it’ll be a first-gear job, but it seems very single-line, and you’re a bit limited to your options.
“It’ll put some opportunities there, but I don’t think that they’ll be done there – they’ll be done at the next corner because you’re coming into it at less speed and have more margin to brake later. If you brake one second later at 350km/h you’re going off the track, but at 200km/h it’s a massive difference.”
That optimism comes despite the loss of a corner that Miller says was right up there as one of the most spectacular of the year alongside the blind direction change over the crest of the hill on Mugello’s start-finish straight, another corner that in recent years has come under increasing criticism from riders.
“You’ll miss it for sure,” he added, “because along with Mugello it’s probably the most arse-clenching moment of the year.
“You come out of the corner, drop the [ride height] system, hug the white line as much as possible, and tip it left at 350km/h.
“It’s always something, especially on the first couple of laps when you’re aiming at that wall!
“We’re going to miss that, it was cool, but you won’t miss it when you’re in a slipstream, tankslapping, trying to grab brakes that aren’t there anymore. I think that’ll be the better side of it.”
That’s a sentiment that Miller’s fellow Ducati rider Zarco – in large part the instigator of the 2020 crash that led to the chicane being added – agrees with, echoing the idea that by slowing down the corner, it virtually removes the chance of similar crashes to his with Morbidelli in the future, even if it comes at the expense of the fast kink.
RED FLAG 🚩
HUGE CRASH involving @JohannZarco1 and @FrankyMorbido12 at Turn 3! Both riders are conscious 💥#AustrianGP 🇦🇹 pic.twitter.com/3vewoqXvJG
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) August 16, 2020
“I am a bit sad that there is not my name on it,” he joked, “because after the words I had to suffer two years ago it would have been a nice signature to have my name on it!
“It will help to slow down things a bit, and because the speed is now very slow we hope it will not cause huge crashes. Just as a way to slow down everything, that is a way to prevent this type of accident.
“Technically, it’s a pity to lose this, but for me it is even better because I wasn’t strong in this area.
“It’s hard to overtake riders in this area because you have so much speed, but I would say that it can be better for me to handle this area and to feel better.”
