Courtney: New Albert Park layout 'pretty wild'
James Courtney has labelled the reconfigured Albert Park layout "pretty wild”.
Supercars took to the revamped track for two practice sessions on Thursday morning.
Drivers were already subject to variability, with both Hard and Soft tyre compounds in play.
However, this weekend’s running marks the first event on the tweaked, faster circuit layout.
Several corners have been reprofiled, with a key section of the track completely different.
The Turn 9 and 10 chicane has been straightened to present a long, high-speed section.
Supercars drivers reached upwards of 270km/h during the two sections along the back section.
Walls have also been brought closer to the track, notably at Turn 5 and the final corner.
It was at Turn 5 where Broc Feeney suffered his accident in the first session.
The circuit has also been resurfaced.
For Courtney, who was beaten to top spot in Practice 2 by less than 0.1s, the new circuit offers an all-new challenge.
"I got a little bit of a slide, and that astroturf didn’t have too much grip on it," said Courtney, who will bring up race start No. 500 on Friday.
"Gave [the wall] a little bit of a rub… it’s pretty wild.
"From Turn 6, that new profiled [Turn] 6, all the way to [Turn] 9, it’s crazy fast through there.
"We’re on the Hard tyre and it’s right on the edge of being flat.
"It’s going to be pretty interesting with the 25 of us going through there.
"The surface is really, really flat. I think they’ve done a really good job with it.
"It seems so much wider in areas, but yet the walls are closer. It’s a bit off-putting, but we’ll see how we go.”
Will Davison, who was in the top five in both sessions, was also impressed by the new top speeds.
"It’s definitely fast around the back section of the lake,” Davison said.
"Comfortably flat now on soft tyres. Race trim will be interesting.
"You’re doing 270, 280 [km/h] and you’re sort of loaded for five or six seconds.
"It’s billiard table smooth. Grip is quite high so it’s just trying to understand how you can attack the corners.”
"It’s similar but everything is in slightly different places. We’ve got a different drop gear [ratio] in the car, so it’s just a bit to relearn."
