As Formula One goes looking even further afield to bolster its already obscenely overflowing coffers, the list of new, and proposed circuits in far-flung (and often ridiculous) places, gets longer and longer. Unfortunately, they all have one thing in common……THEY ARE BORING.
Actually, circuits like the new Yas Marina circuit in Dubai and the Austin, Texas layout (yet to be named) have one other thing in common. They are all designed by the boring German, Hermann Tilke. And the overwheling characteristic of a Tilke-designed layout is a complete and utter lack of high-speed corners. They are all, stop/start, “made for television” layouts where a preponderance of slow, stop/start corners artificially keeps the pack together and makes it look (at least to the uninitiated) as if exciting racing is taking place.
Now a V8 Taxi race is taking place there later this year and already the circuit has been described by the current champion, James Courtney, as “lacking character”. I’m sure if James hadn’t been constrained by the usual media muzzle through which drivers must speak these days, he’d have said that “It’s boring as bats**t”
Read the rest of Courtney’s comments HERE.
Here’s the proposed Austin, TX layout…familiar??
Now at least this one does appear to have some elevation changes, but, again, WHERE ARE THE HIGH-SPEED CORNERS?
What makes Monza, Spa, Estoril, Hockenheim (the old one, not the new abortionate travesty), Assen, (see above), what makes these tracks iconic and wonderful? Answer, high-speed corners. It’s not rocket science. As James Courtney said, the spectators are placed 1000kms away from the track and all they can see is a few, strop/start corners.
Look at the list of Tilke-designed circuits and compare them. They’re all “cookie cutter” layouts, designed for television with no thought at all about what spectators and competitors really want.
The defining moment of the 1996 F1 World Championship was when Jacques Villeneuve passed Michael Schumacher around the OUTSIDE in the Parabolica Corner at Estoril, a high-speed, heart-in-mouth pass that people still talk about today. Here it is on Youtube. Watch and enjoy because soon all the high-speed corners will be gone and daring like this will have slipped into history.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp37Rl2J_fg[/youtube]
For God’s sake, let’s have some high-speed corners.