TRACKSIDE VIEW
Eleven minutes into free practice three, the track falls silent thanks to heavy rain on parts of the Paul Ricard circuit. Thirty-nine minutes later, Fernando Alonso heads out to applause from the crowd in the Turn 11 grandstand. Or should that be grandstand ‘near’ Turn 11, for those sat in it are a sea of blue-and-red stripes, and more, away from the long right-hander.
Alonso is one of only a handful of drivers who venture out in the wet, with Williams pairing Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin the first to commit to more than a single exploratory lap. Through the long right-hander, neither is sure how much grip to expect, both kicking out the rear on standing water at the exit of the corner as they explore the grip.
“We hoped for wet qualifying so wanted to go out and get an impression of how the track is, how the car is and so on,” says Sirotkin. “It’s tricky because everybody says ‘don’t take risks’, but to get a reasonable feel you need to.
“There are some occasions where you find yourself quite far under the limit, but on others when you are hardly [pushing] you lose the car because you get aquaplaning.”
Turn 11, which puts huge demand on the front left and tightens, is a particularly tricky corner in wet conditions. Stroll carries more speed through the corner than Sirotkin, although given the variable level of grip it’s perhaps understandable Sirotkin is cautious.
“The Tarmac actually had good grip but that’s in the medium to slow speed where aquaplaning doesn’t play a role,” adds the Russian. “Other corners, like Turn 4-5, you have these patches that are really slippery and unpredictable. There’s some patches that have no grip, and it’s tricky to cross them and not lose a car while still maximising the pace.”
Sirotkin cites the Turn 13 right-hand kink as having a river running across it, and walking round in the final moments of the session you certainly see it. Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly both catch the river and have a wobble.
Paul Ricard is a curious track to watch at thanks to the painted lines on the runoff areas and the myriad of different configurations – at the chicane on the Mistral Straight it looks something like Spaghetti Junction, with roads and runoff in all directions. But for the drivers, it’s just a normal track – save for the lack of visual reference points.
“We are sitting quite low, so we don’t see so much of the lines, the blue and the red,” said Sebastian Vettel on Saturday. “I think the more difficult thing is that there are no references.”