Paris Circuit one step closer to happening

[Ardius]

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=45020

Interesting, plus, apparently Rome are also considering creating a street circuit too, maybe Gran Turismo would actually have predicted a future circuit?

Environmentalists and home residents don't seem have much vocal power currently, with Donington getting go ahead despite oppositon from environmentalists and the residents near Heathrow airport being pretty much ignored. But then again, France and the UK are two very different places, it will be interesting to see how far this gets.

 

[Stevisiov]

Street circuits are great in moderation. To many and the novelty factor wears off quite a bit, I want the majority of circuits to be full time race tracks.

 

[Ardius]

Agreed, I hate the idea of losing more and more classic, great tracks like Montreal, Melbourne, Silverstone, etc in favour of these new street circuits or tracks in new countries.
Why can't we lose the snooze-tracks first? We've got rid of Magny-Cours finally, but Valencia has replaced it, Singapore isn't too great either, it was only saved because of Piquet last race. Catalunya needs to go too.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Aridus, I'd be willing to give Valencia the benefit of the doubt for now. Sometimes, you just have a bad race. And as for Singapore, I thought it was great. There was plenty of overtaking out there; didn't you see the Trulli/Rosberg battle in the early stages, and then everyone making dives down the inside at the end of the straight?

If anything, we need to get away from these "traditional" circuits; the drivers need a new challenge levelled at them every now and again. Look at Istanbul Park, where Tilke designed Turn Eight to deliberately catch them out. If we stay with the old circuits, eventually the races become a little repetitive.

 

[Ardius]

Aridus, I'd be willing to give Valencia the benefit of the doubt for now. Sometimes, you just have a bad race. And as for Singapore, I thought it was great. There was plenty of overtaking out there; didn't you see the Trulli/Rosberg battle in the early stages, and then everyone making dives down the inside at the end of the straight?

If anything, we need to get away from these "traditional" circuits; the drivers need a new challenge levelled at them every now and again. Look at Istanbul Park, where Tilke designed Turn Eight to deliberately catch them out. If we stay with the old circuits, eventually the races become a little repetitive.

Oh, I'm all for new circuits, but not this many and only if they do a better job at producing good racing.
Singapore had 1 overtaking spot, which admittedly is more than Monaco and Valencia but doesn't make it especially interesting either. I do hope it becomes like Hungaroring though, not good for actual racing but always provides a different winner each race.

I will of course still watch every race, but I reserve the right to say "I told you so" when Valencia provides a boring race again.

 

[Mad94d]

Street circuits are great in moderation. To many and the novelty factor wears off quite a bit, I want the majority of circuits to be full time race tracks.

+1. I completely agree. That's exactly how I see it.

 

[TheBigMan045]

What happened to the likes of Kylami or Mexico City? Both great tracks only local politics got in the way.

The main reason for the street circuits is that the hosting country doesnt have to spend a bucketload on a permanent circuit or they may not have the space for a F1 Spec circuit, it doesnt sit around half the year desolate because after F1 has left the owners cant afford the upkeep of 52 weekends of racing per year.

 

[Robin]

Im all for street circuits and would love to see more provided they are more interesting than Valencia.

Robin.

 

[senamic]

Yeah but even though Albert Park is a street circuit the organisers have a consistent loss of cash every year. F1 is expensive, and hosting races on street circuits or dedicated circuits is expensive. The president of FOTA has been quoted as saying that the street circuits are little more than gimmicks, ("at least Monaco has its on history" he said last year "but to have three or four Monacos is too much"[www.pitpass.com]).

 

[Pupik]

The main reason for the street circuits is that the hosting country doesn't have to spend a bucketload on a permanent circuit or they may not have the space for a F1 Spec circuit, it doesn't sit around half the year desolate because after F1 has left the owners cant afford the upkeep of 52 weekends of racing per year.

You hit the nail on the head, although I don't agree there should be more street circuits.

Street circuits do not allow for the full potential for most racing cars, and that's why they are not terribly interesting to me. The novelty factor wears off after a single race, although Monaco has a rich and absurd history that can't be altered so easily, since it is the most recognizable F1 race.

The other problem with street circuits is that they block the flow of traffic, shut down operation of local businesses for at least a week, and generally use tax-payer's roads as an excuse to charge money to see an event. It's one thing if you want to use countryside roads, but when using the inner nexus of a big city, that just annoys too many people.

Street circuits have proven to get stale after a while, although there usually exists an opportunity to change and alter the track shape year after year, although this is rarely done. The abundance of 90-degree turns are also boring and repetitive.

There's a perfectly good Paul Ricard circuit that is now just a testing track, and Magny-Cours still looks better than any street course idea.