Autodromo Riccardo Paletti Varano

The Autodromo Riccardo Paletti sits near Varano de' Melegari in the province of Parma, roughly 30 kilometres south-west of Parma. According to Wikipedia the venue started in 1969 as a small 0.550 kilometre oval, and the full layout was inaugurated on 26 March 1972. It is named after Formula 1 driver Riccardo Paletti (1958-1982), who was killed at the 1982 Canadian Grand Prix. Among the co-founders was engineer Giampaolo Dallara, who later built his racing car company in Varano. The configuration in use since 2011 measures 2.350 kilometres with 14 turns, and there is a short variant of 1.640 kilometres with 13 turns; asphalt is documented as the surface and the FIA classification is Grade 3. Racing series listed by the source include Italian Formula 3 (1972-2010), Italian Formula Renault (2000-2011), Formula Abarth (2005-2011) and the Italian GT Championship (1993-2001). The operator, training times and fees are not documented there - ask before you travel. Fourteen turns packed into 2.350 kilometres is a very high corner density, which makes Varano a tight, kart-track-like circuit. You barely get into long full-throttle stretches; instead almost every lap is decided by how quickly and how precisely the bike turns in. That is exactly where lazy geometry shows up straight away: if the bike understeers on the tight tarmac and pushes wide on the front, top of our cause list is this: front too high, geometry too lazy - more fork protrusion for sharper turn-in. Treat it as a starting point, not a guarantee, and adjust in small steps.