Madring impresses first drivers but overtaking may be difficult

Madring has received its first detailed verdict from the people who have actually driven it, and the answer is encouraging without being entirely comfortable.

Formula 3 driver Bruno del Pino completed 93 laps during the two-day test at Madrid's new Formula 1 venue. The Spaniard, who is the nephew of Pedro de la Rosa, described the circuit as fast, demanding and enjoyable, with the walls creating a feeling closer to Monaco or Jeddah than to a conventional permanent track.

It has made an impact, he told AS. The walls are very close and it is very different from the circuits we normally race on.

The most striking section is La Monumental, a 550-metre banked corner that places a sustained physical load on the driver before the car returns to the tighter parts of the lap. Del Pino said the combination gives the 5.4-kilometre circuit a character of its own.

He was less certain about overtaking. Formula 3 cars running together tended to form a train, and he expects passing to be difficult unless a driver has a considerable pace advantage. Formula 1's greater energy management and aerodynamic tools may create different opportunities, but the first evidence suggests that track position will be valuable.

Del Pino also said the run-off at Turn 11 should be reviewed after incidents during the test. That is precisely the sort of detail the exercise was intended to expose before the circuit's first Grand Prix.

The official test involved 30 drivers from 10 Formula 3 teams and allowed the organizers to rehearse race control, communications, medical response, recovery and safety procedures. It was therefore both a test of the circuit and of the organization around it.

The inaugural Spanish Grand Prix at Madring is scheduled for September 11-13. A new circuit rarely reveals all its secrets in a Formula 3 test, but it has now produced something more useful than computer images: informed criticism from a driver who knows where the walls are.