[Purist]

It's been way too longsince I added to this. And things could use some livening up around here anyway.

High-Speed, Technical Circuits
To some, this probably looks like an oxymoron. Considering the modern definition of technical circuits, this is hardly surprising.Internationally, the Hungaroring is one of the best-known and most referenced technical circuits. Here in the States, several of Alan Wilson's designs are lumped into a similar category. They are relatively slow, with an abundance of slow and medium-speed corners, have few high-speed corners, and often lack particularly long straights.

Some of these things will change with the generation of cars you are talking about, but these should give you some ideas on technical road courses that are quite quick. In their heyday, the old Spa-Francorchamps circuit, as well as the course at Rouen-les-Essarts, were very fast, but also exceptionally challenging.

Spa had several very high-speed curves that were real corners back when F1 ran the old layout. Eau Rouge was certainly not flat-out. Haut de la Cote needed to be negotiated properly to get a good run down the hill to Burneville, where you want to just barely lift, and then mash the gas and hold just the right line to where you never had to adjust the wheel to smoothly traverse the succession of apexes. After this, you had the bend at the Malmedy slip road. The Masta Esse could just be taken flat in the late 1960s, but took total commitment, and a lack of imagination about what would happen if you got it wrong. Around the rest of the lap, you had the banked Stavelot curve that bypassed the original hairpin in town, the right-hander at La Carriere, the then not-so-flat-out Blanchimont, and the then terrifying Clubhouse Corner (where the Bus Stop was added after the course was shortened for 1980).

At Rouen, you were faced right off the top with that series of fearsomely fast esse bends, including the infamous "Six Freres" corner. If you have seen the photos, this is the sequence where the shots were taken showing Fangio hanging the tail out at well over 100-mph in the 1957 French Grand Prix. After the cobblestone hairpin, you had a few potentially tricky bends leading into Sanson. After this, you had to get Beauval and L'Etoile just right to make good time around the entrire back side of the course.

With today's cars, the Nurburgring Nordschleife is not a slow circuit anymore. Yet, it still contains 150-175 corners (depending on how you count it), and the great majority are not flat-out. Apart from the Dottinger Hohe, none of the"straights" are really that straight, and that long straight at the end does have a sting in its tail with the gut-check at the Tiergarten. The series of corners after Flugplatz and before Adenau Forst demand extreme precision at speeds that can be approaching 180-200mph in the fastest cars, and the same applies for the run from Bergwerk up to just before the Karussel. A handful of the high-speed corners, like Pflangtzgarten, require more than just taking the "ideal line", but taking a line that isn't too compromised, but also allows you to land all four wheels back on the road (depending on your vehicle) before you must make the next turn; that particular drop-off is where Stefan Bellof flipped his factory Porsche 956 in the 1983 (and final) 1000km on the Nordschleife.

What I want to convey here is that a circuit need not be slow to be very technically challenging. I have nothing against technicality, but I am against putting in some stadium section or what-have-you just for the sake of having one on a track. If the track works as well or better without it, I'd just as soon leave it out. I've said it before, and I will say it again, not every track needs to have a bit of everything. Also, there are few things that can be as boring, unimaginative, and counter-productive to actual racing as a tight, technical infield section inserted into a track's layout. Hockenheim's original "Stadium Section"was good, the vast majority that have come along since then have been not nearly as good; many come across as afterthoughts, or, as I say, plunking in a technical sector just so you can say that the track has one. It is only their for its own sake. Hockenheim didn't need a second stadium, and the Nurburgring and Austin didn't need stadium sections at all. I rather liked the Castrol Esse on the Nurburgring GP Circuit, and Austin already has a series of esses after Turn 2, without needing for there to be a niggly infield bit after the back straight.

As a final example, look at Bathurst from the run into Quarry around to Forest Elbow. Again, this is an exceptionally challenging piece of road, and much of it is negotiated near or above 100-mph, even with the big, bulky V8 Supercars. Imagine an LMP1 lapping Mount Panorama in anger, or look up the F1 demo run on YouTube.

If I had to name a few newer circuits that are fairly technical, but also quick, these would probably be my top five: Potrero de los Funes, Algarve, Autopolis, Mugello, and Brno.