Slipstreaming 101 /deathwish [video=youtube;lnYp4srEooI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnYp4srEooI&feature=youtu.be[/video]
Layout for the new Oil-Rich Human Rights Abuse Dictatorship Grand Prix shows just how far track design has come: please log in to view this image
The part where they have 2 straights going either way will make a cool (and unique) shot for TV. Aside from that.... the word "grim" comes to mind.
Wonder how much money they'll have to pay to offset the loss of TV revenue when the audience can take it any more.
Apart from the section that reminds me of the old Singapore Sling, there's not a single element of that track that looks remotely interest. Hopefully there's at least some decent elevation changes, but I doubt it in the middle of a city.
In fairness I think it's difficult for any track to look interesting when all you're given is the 2d perspective. I think the west side of the track looks like it has potential (for dangerous accidents among other things), but the east side belongs in Formula E
Here's a fun comparison: a video contrasting laps of Suzuka in the V10 (Schumacher 2006) V8 (Vettel not sure which year) and V6 (Rosberg this year) eras. [video=youtube;Zaf7NvouDBQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zaf7NvouDBQ[/video] You can reeeeally see just how much power those V10s were chucking out.
The thing that stands out for me there is just how easy that Red Bull looks to drive! Even the Merc twitches on the power, the RB is just on rails.
Random question time. I recently went the Silverstone Classic and visited the pits. Cars were prepped for the race in the pits, and went out into the pit lane, and the cars for the following race which were out the back of the pit building would then come into the pits to be made ready to go. It made me wonder how this works on a GP weekend. I can't image the F1 teams having to move all of their garage to make room for the GP2 or other support race cars, so where do these cars go?
They had a lot more downforce in 2006 as the cars had all the winglets etc on them. If you look at very first few seconds, in straightline speed alone the Merc makes it into turn one way ahead of the Ferrari. Also, doesn't the Ferrari finish last?
Looks like they took a lap Schumacher did in Q3 and hence on race fuel. I looked it up on wiki and his Q2 time was way faster than this year's cars.
Tracks frequently have separate support pits, I believe it's a requirement for modern circuits. For example at Suzuka they're between Spoon and 130R, marked as a grey line here: please log in to view this image At Yas Marina they're between turns 10 and 11 I think: please log in to view this image