Robin Frijns has hailed Formula E’s decision to remove chicanes at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez as a “wise decision”.
The all-electric single-seater series returns to the home of the Mexico City E-Prix this weekend and is set to race on a circuit that sees a number of revisions, including the removal of two chicane sections from the Season 5 layout.
Throughout the 2018/19 campaign, Formula E witnessed a high quantity of incidents in similar corners, with a multi-car pileup at the start of the Swiss E-Prix in Bern causing a red flag while an airborne accident for Nelson Piquet Jr in Mexico City also caused a stoppage.
Similar changes were also seen in January’s Santiago E-Prix, with the chicane of Turns 8, 9 and 10 of yesteryear getting removed while the left-right-left sequences of Turns 3-5 and 14-16 in Mexico have been omitted.
Reflecting on this call, Envision Virgin Racing’s Frijns described the decision as wise while the addition of six new corners should aid overtaking:
“I think it’s extremely important and a wise decision to remove the chicane from this circuit layout as we’ve seen some bad incidents here in the past,” said the Dutchman in the run-up to the fourth race of the season.
“[The changes] should also make the racing much more exciting and I believe there could be more overtaking opportunities this time round.
“From our time spent on our simulator, the data has shown that we could be approaching our fastest speeds around the Peraltada bend which means we’re going to be really on the limit.
“It’s going to be a great race and I think I could really capitalise on being in the later qualifying group.”
