Track walk: Sydney Motorsport Park up close

Despite the circuit hosting plenty of racing in recent years, Sydney Motorsport Park is a still a head-scratcher for drivers and teams.

Originally designed for motorcycle racing, the 3.9km circuit has long, loaded corners, tight hairpins and a long straight.

All told, it makes set-up a real compromise, with drivers and engineers needing to be on point to get it right.

Supercars.com conducted a pre-event track walk to get a closer look at Sydney Motorsport Park, which will host Round 7 of the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship.

Tickets for the July 19-21 event are on sale now. International viewers can follow all the action on Superview.

Tough on tyres

Long, high-speed corners ensure tyre degradation will be a big talking point.

A whopping 63 percent of the lap is spent turning, and the right-front tyre cops a big workout. Last year, the average degradation was 0.08s per lap.

Tyre life will likely improve as rubber goes down throughout the weekend, but changing all four tyres in pit stops is almost a certainty given the high degradation.

You need aero stability at Turns 1, 4, 7 and 9, but you also need to get drive through and out of corners, as well as being able to turn and accelerate simultaneously.

Track limits

Track limits are commonplace at street circuits, but they often play a big role at Sydney Motorsport Park.

There are timing loops at the exits of Turns 5, 8 and 10, with the former a particularly popular spot for drivers to run wide and gain an advantage. Notably, Shane van Gisbergen was caught out last year, missing a Shootout berth.

During qualifying and practice, triggering a loop will see the driver’s current lap deleted.In the races, two breaches will trigger a bad sportsmanship flag, and the third will trigger a penalty.