Omfg I love that! Dear god, please make this become true! I see six potential DRS zones lol. Talk about track suited for current Mercedes. They would lap everyone else at least twice come the end of that race lol
Certainly not a drivers' circuit, but Monza and Montreal look awful from overhead but produce good racing. At least it's different from Tilke's usual efforts. Anyone know what the race in New Jersey is replacing?
I think NJ is just going to take the spare slot left by Barcelona and Valencia alternating, meaning there would be no European GP
So we lose a Spanish GP and get two US ones instead. Hopefully it'll be one of the US ones which makes way for Sochi in 2014. Don't like countries having two grands prix, no matter how big or rich they are.
That looks pretty boring, no offence. It has Tilke written all over it, too many straights, no sweeping s-bends, which is what drivers actually enjoy.
I agree with both of these comments. This is what's known as a 'point and shoot' circuit. It's all about power and braking and will be low downforce; however, it could produce some interesting viewing, with at least two DRS zones. (I'd actually like to see more: in theory it could probably support four DRS zones!).
Having just had a look at Wikipedia (not normally the most trustworthy but meh) there are only 3 races on this year's calendar not currently contracted to be held next year: Spa Suzuka Singapore Barring a re-negotiation, in other words, both Spanish races are currently due to be held next year. However, also mentioned as possibilities are the aforementioned Argentina and the return of Paul-Ricard. Bernie then needs to find another spot on the calendar to necessitate the entrance of Russia in 2014 along with any other oil-funded countries who whisper in his ear between now and then. Anyone want a fiver on Spa going again?
Although new circuits need a few annual events to try to generate a following, I'd be quite happy to see year-on-year alternating become the norm. In an ideal world, the four oldest circuits (Spa, Monza, Monaco and Silverstone) would be the annual mainstays, all with the same kind of deal that Monaco gets, in order to underpin F1's heritage and elitism. That'll never happen with FOM as it is currently because there's no sense of nostalgia or value there - just unbridled, lascivious capitalism. I won't be taking that bet.
There is actually a petition to save Spa at http://www.grandprixf1.be/merci.html?Sid=welkom although this kind of thing never usually achieves much success...
Still wont change anything as the villages living next door to the circuit don't want it and refuse to help promote it.
Spa is a great circuit but only the Belgians can really save it. I wish they would see it as a national treasure; but unfortunately, they don't! I'm equally concerned about another venue: Suzuka (owned by Honda and originally conceived by them as a deliberately challenging test track for anything with wheels) is currently considered the best 'driver's circuit' in F1 (yes, that includes Spa!); and it's future is only vaguely more certain. Fuji is interesting but does not come close to equalling Suzuka.
Thanks for caring and sharing, BLS. Looks interesting. I've bookmarked it to read during the loooooooooooooooooooong gap before Spain.
Tis ok, Spent a while reading though the various articles and there's some good stuff there. Obviously written for people who at least have a modest understanding of F1 and mechanics unlike some of the other "technical" blogs you get on the BBC etc.
Thanks for that BLS, looks really interesting at a glance, I'll give it a more thorough later. There's a bit about Perez on Autosport plus from 2008: Sergio Perez is big news these days. And, with British F3 moving on this weekend to Monza, it's inevitable that some in the series remember the Mexican's incredible double British F3 win at the track in 2008. Perez had just taken his and T-Sport's maiden overall victory at Croft before heading to Italy, giving him a narrow championship lead. But it certainly didn't look like he'd keep that position when he was put in 14th place on the grid for both races. T-Sport team boss Russell Eacott recalls: "I can't remember where he qualified in terms of the laptime, because everyone was jumping the second chicane. We weren't on pole but we were about fifth to eighth and thought, 'Oh well, we'll be fine in the second session.' And then after that we got called up to the stewards again⦠Amazingly, Perez won the first race from his seventh-row slot. "After the first race we thought, 'Well, we're never going to do that again,'" continues Eacott. "We sat him down and there'd been a few risky moves on the video, but it was incredible⦠he did it again! Monza played to all his good strengths really â he's really good on the brakes. We took as much wing as we could off and he flew." It proved he had great racecraft, which hadn't been obvious to the world at large while he was concentrating on winning the series' lower National Class in 2007. "He was round the outside, up the inside," says Eacott. "In race two I said to 'Skelly' [race engineer Alan Woodhead], 'Just tell him to keep his head down and don't do anything stupid.' The next lap he took the lead and won and it was, 'Oh well there you go â all logic out the window.' "When you look back at when he did National Class, he always qualified in the middle of the pack, in among the crowd. There was a race at Snetterton where about four cars went in together, he got fired off, came back on and still managed to do really well. "It's what you get from karting â peripheral vision so you know where everyone is â and it probably didn't get noticed so much in National Class. He very rarely damaged the car so he was obviously pretty good, but at Monza everyone else noticed."
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