The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will eliminate the chicane of the third sector and recovers the old turn 13 from the 2023 Spanish GP. The FIA and the circuit confirmed the news on Monday, which had been rumored in recent months. The inspection of the track was carried out by Niels Wittich, race director and safety delegate of the FIA; and Stuart Robertson, Head of Circuit and Rally Safety, and they approved the two versions of the Catalan layout.
At the end of January the modification was approved, which also includes an extended loophole in turn 1. As for the last sector, the Montmeló circuit has followed the FIA instructions when installing TECPRO barriers in the last two corners (officially 13-14), which are again medium and high speed. The total length of the track during the Grand Prix will be 4,657 metres.
It returns to a configuration very similar to the original used until 2006. The fastest lap in the race was 1:15.641 (Fisichella, 2005), when last year it was 1:24.108 (Pérez). But it cannot be said that the first version of the track is back, because the successive modifications in turn 10, of La Caixa, (in 2004 and 2021) to facilitate overtaking alter the nature of the turns and reset the statistics related to records track. In any case, it will be a shorter lap because a slow chicane is removed in exchange for two fast corners. And, above all, an artificial alteration on the track disappears and two spectacular curves return.
