Is this what it's come to? The track is pretty boring. There's a single passing opportunity at turn 3 and that's it. Tilke has a decade of experience at designing tracks, has started multiple projects (including this one) from a clean sheet of paper, and this is it? What's most worrying to me is the turn 15/16 area. The dip is horrible and the sequence is just plain dangerous thanks to pit-in being located there. Because it's a high speed set of turns that starts another corner back, it doesn't set up for a passing opportunity into turn 1. Again, this is a clean sheet design, it's not as if they had to build it around some ancient burial ground that could not be moved. I doubt even an inexperienced designer could come up with something so wrong, so if you ask me, it's intentional and designed to cause accidents. Sad.
It's like 3 different length drag strips followed by a go-kart track section... I really don't see how you're going to have anything but a procession through sectors 2 and 3. As you said, there's so much more that could have been accomplished with a clean sheet of paper... Why can't they make tracks like Suzuka and Spa any more? Extremely disappointed... Frank
Sad but true, David... I miss a lot of the classic tracks...they had character and unique sections and presented unique challenges. I absolutely LOATHE the Tilke designs with a passion. Bland and cookie cutter. Almost every one of his boring circuit designs marks the death of an older, more interesting track with history and puts another nail in the coffin of a piece of F1 history... As we know, finances have played a key role in the migration of national GPs outside of Europe, but can't they at LEAST give us some interesting circuits? It's like a double whammy... Frank
New Joke; What's worse than a Herman Tilke track? Half a Tilke track. It seems that although he did the initial work Tilke was not part of the final design in Korea.
Did you see all that action? All the incidents, accidents, passings etc More action than in most races plus the track looks beautiful
From your perspective, I guess. You've said you want sprinklers on the track. Well, they built this one in a swamp ---- next best thing. Actually: it's worse -- the water never gets *off* the track. Next year, they may run the race using SkiDoos. The "pinnacle of motorsports": standing on the grid, for an hour, red flagged, surrounded by mosquitoes and snakes. Even WRC doesn't have conditions like that. (Anymore. ) (Well, the "surrounded by snakes" part may be like a Mad Max FIA meeting. )
Someone gets it. There's spectacle and then there's racing. Thanks. The snakes added that surreal soupcon that the weekend needed
Thing is, Tilke's track lacks the natural flow. I hate the Hungararoring, for obvious reasons, but it's a drivers track, and has an awesome 'flow', very much like Spa, and Monaco. Tilke's track are basically made up of straights, and hairpin/or extremely tight corners at the end of the straight. Think of Bahrain, for example.
Well EXCUSE ME Call it snobbery but in the "pinnacle of Motorsport " I expect more. Chacon a son gout.
I never cared much for Kaviar and I take a good beer over Champagne any day. If the Pinnacle of Motorsport only were an engineering exercise run under ideal conditions then the cars finishing order would be determined by qualifying. And there wouldn't be a single pass, incident or accident on track. As you say: Jedem Keibchen sein Leibchen.
Translation please. One can have high standards without turning it into an academic exercise. There are enough other formulae for those who like their racing rough.
To each his own T-shirt. I don't need a figure 8 racing but the occasional carbon fibre shredding exercise that throws the WDC points up in the air is helpful. I hate nothing more in racing than predictability. For me 2004 was the worst year in F1. And I don't get it why some folks are thrilled watching the same Audis win Le Mans year after year (or whoever fits the current formula the best).
