Liam Lawson says the Jeddah Street Circuit in Saudi Arabia is no more dangerous than other street circuits Formula 2 race on.
The 27-corner circuit is the second-longest track on the Formula 1 calendar, and it was the longest for the F2 field this season.
Designed by Carsten Tilke, son of Hermann Tilke, the circuit is incredibly fast.
It is so fast and so narrow some drivers have labelled it unnecessarily dangerous.
“It’s too dangerous without a real reason,” F1 driver Sergio Perez said.
Last weekend’s inaugural Grand Prix was inundated with crashes in both F1 and F2.
The start line crash in the final F2 race between Theo Pourchaire and Enzo Fittipaldi was recorded at 72G.
But Lawson, who picked up a podium in race one, says it is no more dangerous than other street tracks like Monaco or Baku.
“I don’t think it’s dangerous,” he said. “In the corners that need them there’s a bit of run-off but otherwise it’s high speed. Monaco as a street circuit is more dangerous than Jeddah.”
Lawson was surprised by how fast the track’s surface was, given nobody had raced on it before.
“We were all expecting the new surface to be quite slippery, but it wasn’t. It was very grippy straight away, a lot faster than we expected.”
Overall, Lawson had positive opinions concerning the track and its layout.
“Sector one is the hardest to master because there’s a few different techniques you can take through there, but it’s a cool circuit.”
All three F2 races had crashes and safety car interventions.
Lawson, himself, found the wall heavily in the closing laps of race two.
The frequent interruptions made it harder for drivers to stay focused.
“It’s good for the tyres because they get to cool down during safety car interventions, but it’s quite hard to [manage] the brake temperature.
“That makes the restarts quite difficult because you’re heading into a high speed, big braking zone at turn one.
“The restarts definitely mess up the rhythm with the way you’re driving.”
F2 return to the Saudi Arabian track in March next year.
