Track changes/developments/modifications/suitability

[MagVanisher]

Looks like Monza was made easier... Sad that most of the classic curves are getting destroy for safety.

On the other hand, is the Foro Sol stadium still intact for baseball play?

[Deleted]

It's crap but not any more crap than all the retarded changes to Spa etc in the last few years. I fully expect all the corners of Monza to be modified in the next five years too

You know isn't it interesting that while it was the WSBK/FIM that was initially blamed for this one, Charlie says here:
"This has been requested for safety reasons by the FIA and the drivers, just as it has been at virtually every other circuit that F1 races on.

Oh and look what a surprise, the exit has been asphaltized and astroturfed as well - surely not even Charlie could give "safety" excuses for this one. Now all of them will just be skipping through that and FIA does nothing

[J Jay]

Do not want.

The Grosjean quotes aren't particularly comforting either.

Originally Posted by Romain Grosjean

Parabolica is a very challenging and quick corner so from a safety point of view it is a good thing to have some more margin for the drivers.

I remember sometimes in the past coming in to the corner and knowing that to brake even a little bit too late then you could be straight in the gravel and then straight to the wall at high speed.

I think that now what you will see is the drivers finding the limits sooner, because we know there will not be the big gravel and crash penalty like previously.

Before someone gets snide dig in I know this isn't a sudden change in attitude and that the drivers have been pushing this for ages.

[Deleted]

You know I recently watched some FIA GT4s at Zandvoort. And Jetta TDI Cup from Road Atlanta from few years back. While those cars are obviously painfully slow and unspectacular by itself, following them though those circuits still felt infinitely more daring and adventurous than F1 or WEC or anything at CotA or wherever because I knew they had to respect the circuit, not play plastic video games without consequences. That's where we are at, soon the club series and smaller championships will provide the only 'thrills' just because of the circuits they go to.

[deggis]

Originally Posted by Chiana

edit - Looks like Tilke designed something sort of interesting couple of yeas ago - Atlanta Motorsport Park
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbZMjtM5aBI



It's a bit too stop and go and some of the corners have been copy catted from elsewhere but for what it is - a club track - it seems adequate? Then again can you really judge and compare club tracks with their standards

Tilke has also designed club/test track Bilster Berg. Proves that Tilke is mainly doing what he (or it, as a company) is asked to do in terms of the F1 Tilkedromes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzg_k-q5NYQ





^ That photo doesn't even remotely show the elevation changes in the looping section on the left - see it in onboard.

[Deleted]

For a club track there's fair bit of tarmac runoff in there. And then on other parts the walls immediately next to the track

[Coach Ep]

Originally Posted by Chiana

And then on other parts the walls immediately next to the track

Which is never a good thing. Nowhere.

[Deleted]

What I meant that it's the same sort of inconsistency as you have at say Korea, ie big parking lot runoffs in 95% of the corners and then suddenly street circuit surroundings for a small bit. Now obviously that Bilster Berg doesn't have that sort of magnitude anywhere but there are some resemblances

[TF110]

The Thailand track SuperGT will be going to is another Tilke project-

[Deleted]

We have new tarmac runoff replacing old gravel trap at Suzuka Dunlop Curves for F1... let's dance

[wewantourdarbyback]

To be fair to Tilke, and I'm not a fan of doing that, when he is designing a track for F1 there are VERY restrictive rules on corner radius, gradient, runoff etc he has to run to.

And the weird wish for long straights like Korea bookended with slow hairpins.

[Deleted]

As restrictive as the directives must be, I doubt they say that the (mandatory 5,5km) layout must include tight technical sector somewhere, preferably towards the end of the lap.

Anyway, it takes some serious skill of the 'gladiators of our time' to still mess it up even with the new runoff https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KodczuLpjA0&t=0m5s

Of course what this does is encourage drivers to take the corner as "whatever", leading up to such incidents. Apparently everyone has been violating the corner today already and driving off the white line, which should come as no surpise to anyone

[Pontlieue]

I came across the following interview with Spa director Thibaut:
http://www.speedactiontv.be/PA_Thiba..._-13908-1.aspx

In that interview he says that a stripe of grass will return to Blanchimont before the tarmac runoff starts, to make sure that drivers respect track limits instead of using the runoff as an extended track and taking too many risks.

This is very interesting I think, as it goes against the trend of putting more tarmac everywhere.

[Deleted]

Strange to have it back there on particular as there are trillion other places getting abused on that circuit due to the asphalt extensions everywhere, but maybe it's a 'trial run'.

This could be a very good sign of sense slowly and with baby steps returning to circuit design, I approve. Though on the other hand new tarmac-ations are happening on plenty of Grade 1 and Grade 2 circuits right now

[Coach Ep]

Originally Posted by Pontlieue

I came across the following interview with Spa director Thibaut:
http://www.speedactiontv.be/PA_Thiba..._-13908-1.aspx

In that interview he says that a stripe of grass will return to Blanchimont before the tarmac runoff starts, to make sure that drivers respect track limits instead of using the runoff as an extended track and taking too many risks.

This is very interesting I think, as it goes against the trend of putting more tarmac everywhere.

It also talks about higher fences in the aftermath of that bizar Radical crash at Eau Rouge/Radillon. Presumably they're for that area but they could show up at other places around the track as well (Busstop chicane comes to mind).

[wewantourdarbyback]

Quite common to see people climbing that fence at Radillion (I've done it once). Making it taller may also manage to reduce the amount of people climbing as well as provide better safety protection.

[Deleted]

And rather surprisingly, there's more of 'backwards engineering' going on here

Originally Posted by Pitpass

At the request of FIM, some of the asphalt run-off area around the outside of Turn 10 [Circuit of the Americas] has been replaced by gravel --

Thanks FIM (for once)

[Pontlieue]

Monza removes gravel for bikes, and Austin adds gravel.... for bikes. How does that corner look now? Tarmac, followed by gravel further down the runoff area?

[Deleted]

I'm not sure if the Monza abomination was 100% down to FIM as Safety-Charlie later on said that FIA and most of F1 drivers had requested/wanted it...

[Purist]

Monza can say what they like in their releases, but it seems pretty clear that the tarmac was added at Parabolica for F1, and only F1. In fact, WSBK left Monza for this season; I wonder if they knew what was coming.

You DON'T see (the large-scale) paved run-offs at Mugello, Laguna Seca, Sachsenring, Motegi, Rio Hondo, Philip Island, Le Mans Bugatti, Losail, Estoril, Sepang, or Brno. In addition, MotoGP uses the old La Caixa and penultimate corner at Catalunya, and does NOT use the Senna Chicane at Jerez. Those unmodified corners have gravel run-offs. All of this ought to tell you something.

It should also be noted that the FIM intentionally went with Populous for Silverstone, not Tilke, due to the German's recent propensity for paved run-offs. So, as bad as the Arena GP Circuit might seem, MotoGP was concerned that it was going to be worse if they went with F1's default choice.

[Deleted]

In a shocking move, we have more asphalt runoff for Interlagos (this time on the left side of turn 2) that is quickly becoming Spa 2.0 in this aspect.



And no-one in the GP or 6 hours is surely gonna shortcut this huge new pit entry with painted lines, surely...

[Deleted]

And who will obey the white line in the actual run up to the finish line when it's put like this?? They'll go as close to that tire barrier as possible. Might just as well remove the line



Think this extends bit further than it used as well? The support wall is new nevertheless


And there's new alternative entry for turn 10

[TF110]

Theyll probably penalize cutting the white lines. If not, it looks like astro turf(?) will be getting torn up.

[deggis]

Originally Posted by Chiana

new alternative entry

[Deleted]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxxvtGAaE3A&t=0m43s