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Formula One drivers have been told "there will be consequences" if they try to get too much out of the sport's newest venue. It was confirmed earlier this week that F1 will return to Africa after an absence of more than 30 years. A 10-year agreement has been struck with the Government of Rwanda to host the African Grand Prix at a purpose-built circuit south of the country's capital Kigali, with the first event due to take place in the early 2030s.
That circuit has not yet been built, but the general layout has been agreed with rendered images shared publicly this week. The track has been designed by veteran circuit-maker Hermann Tilke in conjunction with former F1 driver Alexander Wurz.
The latter has spoken of how much of a challenge he hopes the circuit will pose for drivers. Speaking to the Up To Speed podcast, Wurz revealed how the plan is for one corner to send drivers into the forest with no spectators able to see that section.
And he also had a warning for drivers that the last sector of the lap, which begins with that corner, will come with danger for those who try to push too hard. "There will be consequences if you get one of the first corner sections of the last sector wrong," he said.
"It's a string together of corners. You come out of what we call the Forest Canopy Corner. Actually, I can reveal a little feature which we collectively put together, is one of the corners is only drivers and African forest. No spectators – maybe we'll allow a camera so you guys can see it.
"But also they disappear for one corner and then it's the last sector starting. You come out over a crest, it turns into a corner, it really lifts your stomach. And from this moment on, you have seven corners behind each other that if you are a bit too greedy in turn 12, and you want to be greedy there, because you think you have to nail it into the corner with high speed, every other of the next six corners will be havoc in your mind.
"Because you're going lose a tenth every corner. And that's the technicality for the driver's mind, to really actually be patient with the car and with himself. Because drivers usually, you know, you want always more, you want to be fast into the corner, but it will be jeopardising. And it's also a great compromise on the setup."
Racing in Rwanda is still years away, as is the final construction of the circuit and so there is scope for tweaks to be made here and there to the design. It is imperative that overtaking will be possible, and some worried fans have already pointed out a potential lack of big braking zones based on the renders that have been shared publicly.
But Wurz has promised fans that the circuit will allow for "proper battles", having spent thousands of hours on a simulator testing and tweaking the design. He said: "It's a lot about philosophy but, at the end of the day, it's science. And of course you can simulate things, but I think from my side here, I have the luck and the privilege to have raced against the best people in the best cars on most of the tracks around the world.
"You register the near misses on circuits where you have a great corner combination, but then you can't execute an attack on an overtake, because it's just 50 metres not long enough. So, you register. And then I think, 'Okay, if I have a similar situation with similar speed, similar positioning of the car, if I just extend and make the next corner a little bit tighter or a bit more wide open, it would be a sneak overtake move'.
"So, there's a lot of things come to play when you design a circuit. It's really not as easy to just draw some lines and add a Suzuka and Malaysia corner behind each other. That's like stealing notes from music and you think you now are a creator of a symphony."
Up To Speed is available to watch and listen to now on YouTube, Global Player and all major podcast platforms.
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