page_title: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
section_title: Layout
hierarchical_section_title: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya / Layout
caption_attribution_description: English: Pit Lane Entrace at Circuit de Catalunya (Montmeló, Vallès Oriental, Catalunya, Spain) Català: Entrada a Pit Lane al Circuit de Catalunya (Montmeló, Vallès Oriental, Catalunya, Espanya)
context_page_description: The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is a motorsport race track in Montmeló, Catalonia, Spain. With long straights and a variety of corners, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is seen as an all-rounder circuit. The track has stands with a capacity of 140,700. The circuit has FIA Grade 1 license.
  Until 2013 the track was known only as the Circuit de Catalunya, before a sponsorship deal with Barcelona City Council added Barcelona to the track's title.
context_section_description: The track is demanding of a car's aerodynamic qualities. The wind direction at the circuit can change drastically during the day, a significant factor given the importance of aerodynamics to modern Formula One cars. It is then hard to find a good setup since cars can have massive aerodynamic drag and understeer on one part of the circuit in the morning, but suffer oversteer at the same part of the circuit in the afternoon. A given tyre compound can work well when tested, but not so well a couple of months later. These changeable conditions can make for unexpected performances from some teams during the race. The changeable wind conditions have also caused accidents at the circuit, with Fernando Alonso's testing accident in 2015 partly blamed on the severity of the wind.
  Through 2015, the MotoGP layout used the 1995-2003 version of the Grand Prix circuit.  This was originally the same layout as Formula One, but in 2004 a new, slower La Caixa turn was built;  the motorcycles continued to use the old version, and they also ignored the shorter Europcar turn and RACC chicane.  The F1 layout was implemented for MotoGP originally in 2016 following the fatal accident of Luis Salom in Europcar corner on 3 June 2016.  Race control switched to the F1 circuit for qualifying and the race on 5 June 2016. On 15 December 2016, the FIM announced the change was permanent by announcing plans for a chicane ahead of the current car chicane.  However, during the 2017 race, the new chicane was deemed dangerous by riders because of a surface change, and the car chicane was used during that event. After changes to the track in the off-season including removing grandstands in Turn 12, creating additional runoff and a complete repaving of the circuit, the F1 layout from 2004-06, including the new La Caixa hairpin instead of the long sweeper, was used, eliminating the chicane.
  The World RX of Spain uses parts of the track near turns 11–15, with two additional gravel sections.
caption: Pit lane entrance
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