its a bit sad that suzuka is no more this season (weird feeling when something that seemed to be ever present disappears). Not to mention, MS not having the chance to get at back at alonso at the 130R! Yet, Im quite excited about the new track.
Someone count and tell me how many real drivers track are left on the calender ? Spa gone? check. Suzuka gone ? check . Which one next ? Monza and/or Imola are likely to go.
Very few remain - I know most don't like Imola but it and Spa are my favorites. The park setting, view of the countryside from Acque Minerali, ease of access to Imola and the track (vs. Monza), closeness to Maranello and San Marino = museums, restaurants, tax free shopping - the whole that Imola offers for a weekend in Italy for a racing event - I hope it doesn't go away. We've been going for many years and I'd hate to see it go away for some godforsaken in the middle of nowhere place. Carol
Neither Monza nor Imola are drivers tracks. Imola lost its thrill after 1994. Turkey is the new drivers track. Carol: Imola is cute, no doubt. But is it F1? As for Fuji vs Suzuka I'll keep an open mind. I never liked Suzuka much, just the way it looks and feels, too artificially techy: E.g. the endless slalom turns right after the start. A track should follow the terrain and have somewhat natural bends; whereas Suzuka was designed as a test track and it shows. Same reason I don't like the new Shanghai or Bahrain: Too much of a feel of being artficially tempered with. Maybe I'll like Fuji better. The mountain should give it an impressive backdrop at least.
Suzuka was a technically interesting track -- a pain to the engineers: the kind of challenge that you don't look forward to, but you look back on it better. But the telecom infrastructure out there didn't support coverage worth a durn; remember all the feed issues last year? Spa, Nurburgring, and other classic tracks do have the scenery and rolling terrain of the countryside, harking back to events like the MM or TF which were both a race and a "fine day out". But widely distributed tracks are difficult to cover both with cameras and with emergency crews ... or even corner workers. Beautiful events, but a lot of support needs. Imola and Watkin's Glen were great sports car tracks. WG still is, somewhat. But the supercars have out-grown them. They keep messing up Imola with chicanes to try to make the supercars fit on them. On the other hand, you wouldn't really say that the supers "fit" on the streets of Monaco, either. So the challenge is to find venues big enough for the cars, and small enough for support and media coverage. But tradition still counts for something in F1; even if Bernie can't find it as a line item on his balance books, it's there. Events like Monaco, Spa, Nurburgring, Imola -- even if mutated -- still carry traditions which keep F1 from being just another spec racing series.
i agree. shanghai and especially bahrain, doesn;t impress me at all. the track layout isn;t just natural. i mean, tracks should have some naturally smooth flowing corners, like the catalunya, and not to mention, spa. i think if bernie wants to drop some euro races, hungary should go...just too plain and boring, not to mention hockenheim. they destroyed the track after the long straights were gone...
Basically agreed on all. Speaking of natural flow: Did you ever play Hungary on the Playstation for instance? It is amazing how natural the flow of that track actually is. I agree it is a boring track from the outside, but as a "driver" I totally love it. Bahrain and Shanghai I can't get a rythm. I'm also struggling with Sepang and Hockenheim. Imola, Monza, Spa, Barcelona all have good flows. At least virtually.
I really hope when they go to 20 GPs in 2008, Suzuka will be included. Suzuka is along with Spa and Monaco the best test of a driver's ability. I will be really sad that it is gone. I wonder how it was back in the 70s when they stopped racing at Nurburgring, was there a lot of grief?? Or when they stopped racing at the old Spa circuit with its 9 miles of high speed terror. What was the reaction then??? Or the old Osterreichring with its terifying first corner??? I know the show goes on but did some fans say that's it no more F1 for me?
Very good questions and I'm trying to remember, but can't really. Partly because without computers and the internet we weren't as connected back then. Nuerburgring got sacked after the horrible Lauda accident and even before that it was always referred to as "the green hell" in the press. So people weren't too upset when the safety oriented new Nuerburgring was announced. I do remember an uproar though when the plans for the new Ring were made public and everybody realized how far the pendulum had swung the other direction: Instead of trees there were now acres of sand traps distancing the cars from the spectators. People weren't happy about that, but I think some of the recent changes have addressed parts of those issues. The video "In car 956" makes a short and sad reference to the closing of the old Ring. But nothing that would indicate the end of the world to racing or F1. Personally I never felt too much of a loss when they switched from the old Oesterreichring to Zeltweg. Partly because the track layout was somewhat similar, but safer. I loved the A1 Zeltweg track (as I loved the old one) and was very sad to see it disappear from the calendar. However that was somewhat foreseeable with the little support the track got from its own country and environmentalists protesting every single race. I remember when they threatened to throw balloons filled with oil onto the track to cause cars to crash. Berger said to that: "Why don't they just shoot us with a rifle?" To make a long story longer: Tracks come and go. It's nothing new, happens all the time. I was more affected by the loss of Brands Hatch and the lousy replacement of either French track (Ricard or Dijon).
Nah, wasn't saying Monza/Imola are drivers tracks. I was saying F1 is slowly losing all its historic tracks such as Spa and Suzuka and now Bernie threatening Monza , Imola , and Monaco. Sorry if I didnt clearly separate my 2 comments on drivers tracks and historic tracks in my previous post.
