Alex Albon airs major concern over new Spanish GP icon

Alex Albon has shared the concerns he holds about Turn 12 at F1's new Spanish Grand Prix venue, the Madring. 

La Monumental, as it has been dubbed, is a 550m-long banked corner in the middle of the lap, and features around 24 degrees of banking.

It was created to be the standout corner of the circuit, which has taken over Spanish Grand Prix hosting duties from Barcelona, and will be the 79th different circuit to host a world championship grand prix. 

However, after preparations for the weekend, including a track walk, Albon has aired two big concerns he holds about the corner, related to safety during and after the on-track running, especially in the race.

"There are a lot of high-speed corners, a lot of blind corners; it gives me vibes of Macau, but more for an F1 track. It is a little bit concerning: the blind spots in some of the corners," Albon told media, including RacingNews365.

"Like if there is a car that's stopped on the other side of the corner, I hope they're just quick on the VSCs and the red flags. Inevitably, there are going to be a few crashes this weekend.

"Turn 12 itself is high-speed. I am quite concerned about the cool-down laps when drivers are doing slow laps. I don't think there's a correct place you can position the car. If you put the car up top, actually, I think the line is a little bit to drift up to the middle of the track, and then you come back again, so you're not in a perfect place. 

"I worry about the marbles in the race. It's very low grip. At this point in the weekend, they resurfaced the track quite late. I think it was May, which, if you think about what the last resurfaced track we did when the oils are still coming off the track, Turkey [in 2020] is like the most recent standout one that we've had. You then form a single line because all the rubber is only in one place, and if you stray away from that line, then there's no grip. 

"So on top of trying to find clean air and going up high on the banking, you've also got you'll you'll have marbles to contend with as well later into the race, so you've got to be careful with that.

"I personally don't think you can do that many lines. The track's quite narrow, and it's different when you have clean air, and there's space. Whereas, if you have a little snap, you're into the wall immediately. Drivers aren't as willing to stick it up to the top of the banking and take the risk of running a high line. I hope I'm proven wrong, but I don't think that part of the track is going to offer that much overtaking."

The article continues below. 

Alex Albon concerns over Turn 12 - La Monumental

Owing to the length of La Monumental, it is a corner that does not have a defined apex as such, with drivers continually turning through to navigate. 

This is something Albon believes is against a driver's natural muscle memory to find the apex.

"I like to go on a scooter, and I like to drive the track eye level or walk the track eye level. Just literally sit on my scooter and go around," he said. 

"You really get a different immersion of how little visibility there is around some of the corners, so, if you think about these long, long corners, there's no apex point, and a lot of the corners, actually, if you look at the way the track is, they're late apexes. 

"So you're kind of swinging in from a blind spot, and you've got to kind of try and pick an imaginary spot that's a few hundred metres in front of you; that's really challenging to do as a driver. 

"It is a lot of repetition and muscle memory just to get that timing right because you basically can't see an apex, so now you're just using your internal body clock and almost imagining.

"You're trying to focus on a reference point to something to know what your apex point of that corner, so that's going to be difficult. 

"When you're low down [in the cockpit], obviously the visibility is a lot harder, so that will be interesting."