This is a first that we owe to the global health crisis; the Portimão circuit will host for the first time in its history a World Championship Grand Prix, which will serve as the final occasion on November 22, possibly in front of 50 spectators.
For this, the Portuguese circuit, which received its F1/MotoGP approval upon its opening in 2008, will undergo a makeover with the total repair of its surface, an operation which will begin at the end of August/beginning of September and must be completed well before the weekend of October 25, when the Algarve circuit will host F1.
With a new route already known to be difficult because of its steep climbs and descents, and what's more with a new surface, the task is anything but easy for the Michelin technicians who to date have almost no data on the characteristics of the road. Portuguese route, unlike their colleagues at Pirelli who describe it as follows: “ it remains one of the circuits that best showcases the tire's ability to perform in wildly different conditions, due to its altitude changes and blind corner entries. While the rear tire is required to go from low to very high temperatures, the front must perform well to enter curves with precision. Unlike the rear which experiences little but intense mechanical/thermal stress, the front is constantly used in slow corners and fast corner entries. »
Consequently, after repair of the coating, a test will be organized, reserved for the Test Teams of the different manufacturers.
The date does not seem to be definitively determined at the moment, but we will not let you know as soon as we know it.
