If the big celebration of the French Grand Prix will take place next week, the Catalan Grand Prix, the second most visited by French enthusiasts, will take place three weeks later at Barcelona-Catalunya, on June 11.
As we have seen, the new chicanery adopted after the death of the late Luis Salom is now over (see here), but the work did not stop there, as the controversial Astroturf (synthetic grass) was completely removed to make way for cemented surfaces.
As F1 is not subject to the same video controls as MotoGP, we have even added borders to these new green painted surfaces, which will be removed for the three motorcycling Grands Prix.
Synthetic turf was invented in the USA at the end of the 70s to cover university fields (the first was installed in Houston by the company Astroturf, hence the usual misnomer). There are 1 families of synthetic turf; one for sport and one for “landscape” (ornamental or decorative lawn). In the sports family, there are lawns for football, rugby, tennis, hockey, cricket, American football, golf greens, etc. There is currently no turf manufactured specifically for automobile or motorcycle circuits. The one used on circuits is either one for golf greens or a “landscape”. This means that they have a very short fiber (around 10mm) and a very high tuft density (around 70/m²).
As for the grip of synthetic turf, we are very far from that of the track. The grip of synthetic turf in (dry) conditions used on circuits is equivalent to that of a circuit in the wet. Wet grass sticks about as well as wet parking lot paint. No need to draw a picture…
It was gradually installed on circuits outside the track, and/or curbs, to penalize the driver who gets a little too comfortable with the layout...
The main problem occurs when it is wet because it dries very slowly and is extremely slippery, but it can also prove fatal in the dry under a combination of bad circumstances, like with Shoya Tomizawa...
In 2013, Dorna worked with an Aragonese company, precisely at the Alcaniz circuit, to put a rubber base between the asphalt and the grass, but the project was ultimately rejected because the result was not exceptional and the very high cost.
It is gradually being replaced by bitumen (painted green) as at Misano (turf removed following the Tomizawa accident), Silverstone or Barcelona, with penalties for those who put their wheels on it after the curbs.
