Losail F1

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by Motorsport.com

Qatar could soon be ready to join the Formula One calendar.

Modifications at Losail are taking place [...]

The current track only has one overtaking spot, so it needs some changes. My proposal is 5.9km long, with a new 850m backstretch and a third 600m straight before it.

[LuiggiSpeed]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

The current track only has one overtaking spot, so it needs some changes. My proposal is 5.9km long, with a new 850m backstretch and a third 600m straight before it.

I'm geting puzzled at this, how come a track with so many corners can only have one overtaking spot?

Are F1 pilots that bad or what am I missing here?

Your edit it's very good ,though!

[ECW Dan Selby]

Ergh, please no! This is a horrible, horrible track.. The definition of 'no flow'. And yeah, i'd probably say there were more than 1 overtaking opportunity there. The place is literally a neverending hairpin.

Selby

[Purist]

Luiggi, you're NOT going to see F1 cars running side-by-side through any of those long, medium-speed turns. For F1, they're one-line corners, period. And to get up enough speed for outbraking, F1 cars need the longer straights. Those last two corners, before the final turn back onto the start/finish straight, will also only be medium-speed affairs for F1, I suspect. Therefore, you would also want faster options for those for F1.

[Yannick]

Your edit works great in adding a bit of life to an otherwise lifeless track. Sadly, you haven't removed Turns 5 and 6 by bypassing them, which is amongst the 1st things that come to mind when thinking about how to fix this design. The lightly curving backstretch is a great idea, especially when followed by a tight corner that goes into the opposite direction. Yes, the extension of the track at the end of the backstretch is completely necessary to make it enjoyable.

Still, the original totally embodies the essence of a Mickey Mouse track.

[bio]

Originally Posted by LuiggiSpeed

I'm geting puzzled at this, how come a track with so many corners can only have one overtaking spot?

Are F1 pilots that bad or what am I missing here?

Luiggi, take this hyperbolical example: imagine a track that has a perfect square shape, and all four of its straights are 20 meters long. That would be a race full of corners, still there would be no overtaking - since the cars could not gain enough speed before the corners to outbrake the other.

Now, that's how.

bio

[bio]

BTW, I like the edit, too.

bio

[LuiggiSpeed]

With the risk of getting stoned I wouldn't say this track is exactly short, it's maybe the fastest/largest circuits of the MotoGP/WSBK scene and pretty wide too, main straight is more than a K, I know it looks like a karting track but a giant karting track nonetheless.It's one my favorite tracks for the unreal free space and variety of lines, you can pretty much let go the handlebar anywhere and let the bike go and not hit anything until Baghdad, However I have limited F1 experience, other than watching, and I will assume youre all right. So I'd ask for you to kindly google out some kind of car race in there, as Im sure I've seen some.

[LuiggiSpeed]

This just in:

Abu Dhabi, which held its inaugural F1 event at the end of last season on the brand-new $1-billion Yas Marina Circuit, is aiming to host a round of the MotoGP World Championship within the next few years.

“MotoGP boss Carmelo Ezpeleta was here last year and the track designer Hermann Tilke will be coming up with a proposal in the next couple of weeks. But it will take time. We are looking at a time-frame of maybe two to three years when Abu Dhabi will be able to hold a MotoGP round,” Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management CEO Richard Cregan told the Khaleej Times.

“MotoGP is one thing which I'm very passionate about. I would love to see MotoGP coming to Abu Dhabi in two to three years time. It would be fantastic. The Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) has brought the World Rally Championship (WRC) candidature event to Abu Dhabi, with the aim of becoming an official WRC event in 2011. And with a MotoGP race, Abu Dhabi will become a real hotspot for motorsport,” he added.

Qatar is currently the only Middle Eastern round on the MotoGP World Championship - and the only night race. But while Abu Dhabi is looking to add MotoGP, Qatar's Losail International Circuit is working towards an F1 round.


“Surely F1 is part of our future plans,” the Gulf Times quotes Qatar Motor and Motorcycling Federation president Nasser bin Khalifa al-Attiyah as saying. “Considerable work on the track has already been done, but there's a lot of development that still needs to be done [for F1].

“We need to be absolutely sure when it comes to safety. Once everything is in place the track will be evaluated by the safety commissioner and then the track will be licensed for official F1 testing.

“After that we will be ready to be part of the F1 circuit.”

Bahrain is the other Middle Eastern country, alongside Abu Dhabi, on the present F1 calendar.

I would think safety shoud be piece of cake in Losail, if you can race F1 in the streets of Monaco, I don't see a problem in Losail , now turning the coin around, you can't just race MotoGP in Abu Dhabi as is, there's plenty of places to get splattered on a motorcycle that still need to get addressed, so ...you want to also touch that in this thread or shall we open another one to re-design Abu for bikes? I wouldn't want to hi-jack a Brother's thread!

[Purist]

Luiggi, yes, we know the track is reasonably long and has a long main straight. A lap is 5.4km (3.355 miles) and the main straight is 1068m. The trouble is, a number of the corners are medium-speed, which are just follow-the-leader in cars. Most of the quicker corners aren't at the end of a straight that is long enough to outbrake somebody, and they exacerbate the aero wash because they are quick, but not on the cusp of being flat-out; most of them require GP2 cars to drop a gear. Also, apart from the main straight, none of the others in the circuit's current form are really long enough for more powerful cars to make use of them for outbraking or slipstreaming maneuvers.

Here's a segment of racing. I didn't post Part 1, since a start crash meant there wasn't much racing shown until the restart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osfLz...rom=PL&index=1

[skid mark]

I saw Charlie Whiting arrive at the airport last night, he could be arriving to give the place the once over.

[xlr8r]

Heres my edit

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3529496

I made it a figure eight, something I almost never do. I changed basically the whole circuit. The track did have some decent GP2 Asia races last year, but in its current form would be horrible for F1.

[ECW Dan Selby]

Ooooh now that certainly looks a little more interesting and unique. I really like that long right hander! Also the figure of 8 section works quite nicely.

Selby

[duke_toaster]

It's an improvement, but in order to do anything meaningful there are two options - get the RAF to level the place (tell them there's an Afghan wedding party there?), or not bother ...

[NaBUru38]

Thanks for the positive comments! Since I don't know whether the current track is fine for MotoGP, I tried to leave tit untouched. The second-to-last corner could be "cut", i.e. made faster by making a rounder shortcut. xlr8r's Turkish super long right hander is great, but I prefered a tighter corner so the backstretch ends in a perfect overtaking spot. Turn 2 is so tight that I doubt that bypassing turns 2 to 6 as xlr8r did could create another good overtaking spot.

[jab]

Mine

I think it has the fundamentals of a good, challenging layout - I like the triple-right and there are some good flowing corners there. It's different. However, from watching the GP Masters race there a few years ago, it's clear there's a lack of overtaking opportunities there. So I've only tweaked it a bit - tightened the first and last corners, eliminated that turn 2/3 hairpin/slow corner complex, eliminated turn 6 and smoothened out a couple of others. Should mean more overtaking into turn 1 and more opportunities into the former turn 4 (now turn 3)

The problem is there is a danger of making it too much like Sakhir, so it's important to keep a bit of the old flavour of the circuit - as a result, I don't really like either of the previous edits in the thread

[Yannick]

This is the best I could do for the Losail Circuit: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3531163

I've sped up the circuit by replacing Turn 2 with a more gentle corner and removing Turns 3, 5 and 6. Then, I've incorporated NaBUru38's original middle section, which I like. Unfortunately, my graphical skills didn't do justice to his original. I've decided to speed up the 3rd time sector as well, but in keeping with the track's original spirit, I've added a nasty little chicane before the final 2 corners.

I feel my edit is not better than Montmelo / Barcelona, but given the original circuit, this was the best I could come up with.

[Tathrim]

Yes, it'a a bit like Aida at the end, and has a mini Dingle Dell section, but it's bound to get overtaking opportunities.

[NaBUru38]

Here I go again. I took xlr8r's turns 2 to 6 bypassing, added a Bahrainese loop to make the following straight longer... and added some connections to make Losail a layout feast (as I traditionally do with my tracks). In addition to the clear map, there you have the F1, MotoGP, Superbike, stock car and V8 / touring car courses. I could have connected the new loop with the current pre-backstraight hairpin, but the mess would be too big.

[LuiggiSpeed]

I like your edits, especially edits # 2 & 3 , but I fear the track is now somewhat shorter, isn't it?

[ECW Dan Selby]

Originally Posted by Tathrim

Attachment 25755

Yes, it'a a bit like Aida at the end, and has a mini Dingle Dell section, but it's bound to get overtaking opportunities.

I really like this one. I think this has to be my favourite so far. Has some nice flow, not so stop-start, and it's not outrageously dangerous and can still create overtaking opportunities.

Selby

[NaBUru38]

Luiggi, my #19 F1 course has some healthy 5.5-5.7km and the MotoGP course over 4.8km, so they are fine. The Superbike course has some 4.0km and the latter two a little above 3.0km (I measured them yesterday and don't want to do that again).