SPA question

Not really sure on this, but I thought the reason for dropping Spa this year wasn't tobacco advertising, but other reasons such as securing the financing to pay the bill to FOM.

 

All I know is that Spa should be on the F1 schedule all the time no matter what. It's the only real F1 track left that has not been completely butchered. In fact, I wish they would remove the bus stop chicane and the place would really be special. As long as I am ranting, they need to put Monza, San Marino, Hockenheim and Silverstone back the way they were without bull **** chicanes. And the French GP needs to be back at Paul Ricard. I'm done!!!

 

You forgot about the Ostereichring and shooting Herman Tilke

 

Well, he builds the tracks based on his customers' wishes. And his recent work for Turkey is pretty cool actually.

Senna's death has influenced F1 in many ways and the chicane mania of the nineties was one of them.

 

i can't agree more. aside from turkey, shanghai and bahrain was crap tho. well, anyways, bernie did drop a hint, saying that Spa will be back next season. but he pointed out italy and germany to lose a race each. germany has been facing losses in both circuits. i just hope they remove imola and not monza, and they remove hockenheim as well....i really really miss the long straights...

 

I hope he gives the axe to Monza for many reasons in my opinion (which probably don't mean a hill of beans to Bernie) and Hockenheim is very easy to get to, besides it has toilets in each seating section. He's already losing some of my $$ for his F1 circus as more endurance racing is filling up the trip calendar here. You definitely get more for your money in more ways than one. I'll take the 24 Hours of LeMans over any F1 race.

To asnwer Robert's question, will we get Spa back in '07? Bernie seems to be saying yes and some major plans seem to be in the mill. . . plans are in the works for Imola too. It will definitely be interesting to see what transpires as we've always purchased our Imola tickets prior to the end of the year and that's coming up pretty soon!

Carol

 

That's true. The Dutch F1 commentator said that they're going to move the La Source hairpin, making the start/finish straight longer as well as moving the busstop chicane more to the corner before that (Blanchimont?). Also the buildings will be completely revised.

I heard the same thing for Imola.

Let's just hope it's for the better.

Best, Peter

 

That means a longer straight before entering Eau Rouge too

Wonder who's got the b*lls (or can I say balls??) to go flat out through Eau Rouge?

Bob

 

Every two weeks I'm left wondering how they justify most of the chicanes in F1. The drivers consistently harp about them whenever asked for their opinion. Some, like Tamburello, are pretty easy to understand, but most seem to (unnecessarily) 1. prevent passing and 2. encourage cars to come together - JPM being the leading offender.

When was the last time you saw someone lose the brakes, or even fade them enough to be in trouble? I understand keeping cars from hurtling at walls (Tamburello, turn 1 at Indy), but look at Monza or Magny Cours. How are those justified?

 

Tamburello is justified (actually not even a chicane, but change of layout), but I agree there are others that are strange. Basically they were all built after Senna's death to reduce cornering speeds. I think with today's cars they should be revisited. Both from Magny Cours are really unnecessary and quite idiotic since it was a new track. Bad design.

I'm glad to hear they're looking at the bus stop chicane in Spa. The one in Monza after s/f line should go as well. And in Indy that chicane following turn 1 to turn 11 should be revisited as well.

 

That chicane after the s/f really gutted Monza IMO, would be nice to see it go.

But this is where the FIA gets my vote for asshats of the (late) 90s. Lowering corner speeds? Honestly. Lowering corner speeds? Have they never been in a go kart?

Having long straights encourages teams to setup the car in such a way that it maximizes straight line speed and will inherently result in lower speeds while cornering. Not just aerodynamically low downforce, but reducing toe out and camber to make the car faster on the straight. That is plain old high school physics. And, you can't have your cake and eat it too in setup. No change made to make a car faster on the straight will help it turn in better (harder). That's just the nature of the beast.

They say, well now the cars will be doing 230 at the end of the straight instead of 200. Alright, if you tangle wheels with someone braking from 230 instead of 200 it wont make a hill of beans. You're frucked either way, so close your eyes, duck your head, and hold on for the wailing. This is besides the obvious fact that the cars hardly ever come together at speed. They usually come together at the corner itself - a point at which they would be going slower if they were running a setup for a track void of chicanes.

This seems so obvious, which makes me wonder if the FIA and track builders are really this dense, or if they're just pandering to safety advocates and insurance companies who are hopelessly misguided.

/end of rant

 

Yikes, don't mess with Blanchimont, the run from there to the bus stop is the best overtaking oppertunity on the track.

 

I think the Wallonians are doing all they can. After all the GP brings money to the region, but as the govt they have to be frugal with the tax payers' money.

If anything I'd put the blame on Bernie for asking all that $$$ from the organizers.