SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Feature: The Modern Formula One Circuits

No doubt, Acque Mineralli is one of the more challenging and fun corners in Formula One. It is a double apex right-hander. The first apex is downhill and the second is much sharper and climbs steeply uphill. Given that you enter Acque Mineralli plunging downhill at near 160 MPH it is important to brake and downshift smoothly from fifth down to second gear. Keeping a smooth line is key, as any sharp steering inputs will overload the front end and cause the car to understeer right into the gravel trap. Once bringing the car down into second, it is important to get the car turned through the second half of the corner quickly and get on the throttle. The exit of Acque Mineralli is extremely steep and being late on the throttle will severely penalize you lap times. Once the short straight reaches the top of the hill, there is a relatively flat section of track before Variante Alta.

6. Variante Alta

Alta chicane appears to be a fairly pronounced left-right kink, but choosing a smooth line through the chicane requires far less steering input than it might appear at first. You simply follow the standard racing cornering procedure: slow in, fast out –– I usually choose second gear. Using the curbs here is crucial however. Following the path of the asphalt here will slow you to a crawl. In order to cut a smooth line, you must hop the inside curbs on entry and exit. As I mentioned before, choose damping rates that are too stiff and you will skip right through the chicane and end up on the grass. So important is riding the curbs at Imola that after the 2003 race, the Williams team (and others) accused Ferrari of allowing a greater-then-permissible amount of chassis flex in their cars, permitting the team to use stiffer suspension settings while using the chassis to absorb the shock of the curbs. (Not surprisingly, no sanctions were levied against the home team from Maranello, but I will refrain from venting my conspiratorial invective in this forum. Seriously though, is the FIA really going to bust Ferrari at a track named after Enzo’s beloved son with 100,000 Tifosi watching? OK, no more Tifosi bashing, I promise)

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