A track study for aero effient and KERS equipped cars

[Yannick]

Hello MyTrackers,

the following track design was partly inspired by the onboard video of Bruno Senna's laps around the Yas Island Grand Prix track - and the fact that said track should be good for cars equipped with KERS.

You know, from time to time, I like drawing weird conceptual tracks - and this is one of them.
The track design I'd like to present here as a sketch is nothing more than study for a track that requires for a car to perform well on to be equipped with KERS and a good aero efficiency.

The first two sectors are straight out of the book of the ruler, and might therefore look like a satire with its overabundance of sharp corners. Their purpose is to enable loading up the KERS between the end of the front straight and the other two straights so that it is sufficiently filled for being used at the end of those straights.
The 3rd time sector is the one where aero efficiency comes into play.
The Magny-Cours style chicane at the end of the lap is meant to help KERS cars at the end of the front straight.

I haven't got a clear length estimation of the track yet, but it runs anticlockwise.

Do you think this track could produce any good racing, though its flow is somewhat nonexistant?

[bio]

Hi,

to be honest, the majority of the track seems to me to be rather dull for real racing - the speed of the cars would prohibit any kind of exciting situations to develop - save crashes due to drivers' errors and technical failures, of course.. Only the straights and the elongated curve parts would be fast enought for real racing, IMHO.

bio

[Tathrim]

Let me get back to you on this when my head isn't full of cold, I have a couple of ideas to improve the circuit, as those ideas would be best served as an actual edit (I'll be hand drawing the concepts and then scanning them, as I'm in the middle of a PC upgrade and haven't yet reinstalled SketchUp).

However, there is one consideration that I think you may have missed that I may be able to explain. KERS cars regain energy under braking, whcih charges up the battery, somethign which is of common knowledge.

However, for the battery to charge up in a sufficient amount to be used on subsequent laps, the kinetic energy needs to be recovered in large quanities, which entails a high velocity section leading to a low velocity corner, such as the ends of the two long straights at Yas Marina, the longest straight at the Shanghai circuit, or even the Mulsanne straight leading in to the chicanes or Arnage.

It's why Interlagos wasn't as good for the KERS cars during the Brazillian GP, they couldn't get the charge in the battery to use it, as most of the barkaing points were too gradual, or the velocity was to low for the energy to fully be of use.

I would therefore edit the majority of Sector 1 to be less blocky, removing the forst semicircle and the chicane before the straight that finishes the sector. I would also change the M to some form of ^ instead.

Apologies for any headaches caused in understanding my reasoning. Trying to explain something whilst dealing with a large headiche is always difficult.

Regards

Tathrim

[Tathrim]

Double post, but I have an edit. It explains my idea, but, at a shade over 5.2km, it's got too many corners for my liking, so I am going to fiddle with this thing.

Regards

Tathrim

[Yannick]

Thank you for posting your design, Tathrim. It looks really pretty, especially if run clockwise. There is space for 2 pitlanes as well, the other being on that straight to the right of the design. I like it much better than my version that inspired it.

[Tathrim]

the direction was indifferent, though I have realised that I quit Sketchup without saving it, so I'll have to reproduce it from memory (annoying, but not so much of a matter) if you want a more detailed development.