The Formula 1 calendar development threadFormula 1 

Ardius
Nothing wrong with having a flat out track. Its something we lack these days in F1 but something that used to be quite prevalent back in the 70s. (along with proper street tracks like Long Beach, Dallas, Montjuic Park, Detroit, Adelaide etc).

Monza, Spa and Montreal are the only low downforce tracks on the entire calendar.
It would be nice if a new track gave us some variety and gave us a nice high-speed circuit like the old Hockenheim.

These days it seems "F1 track" just means a circuit with at least 20 corners, with several hairpins, sweepers and technical sections.
Where are the high speed corners, the bumpy tracks, the 90-degree street corners, etc? Variety is quickly starting to disappear from the F1 calendar. Its no wonder that Monza, Spa, Suzuka, Monaco, Montreal, Silverstone, Melbourne and Interlagos are starting to become the focus of most people's attention because they are the most unique tracks on the calendar. Pretty much everything else is the same flavour of track.
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I suppose not. :D Most of the time though, I tend to get strange looks when I suggest they should race on something similar to 60's Silverstone, Reims or Rouen. :lol: So you can probably see why I put up the flame shield this time.
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There will be no GP in New Jersey next year. This makes me sad, but hopefully the paperwork and construction and what-not will be finished early enough for the race to happen in 2014. As a result, the German GP was moved up a week so that the empty slot could potentially be filled by another grand prix somewhere in Europe.

I read on ESPN earlier today that Bernie Ecclestone does not want to have the Red Bull Ring host the race between the German and Hungarian Grands Prix. He really wants to have the race at Constantinople Istanbul Park, but if that cannot happen it seems he'd rather have a season with 19 races without a race at Red Bull Ring (formerly A-1 Ring, and Österreichring before that) than 20 races with a race there.

[sarcasm]I'm sure the fact that Istanbul Park was designed by Tilke and Red Bull Ring was not has played absolutely no part whatsoever in Bernie's decision[/sarcasm]

Anyway, here's the tentative 2013 F1 schedule at Wikipedia. I hope the German GP is at Nuerburgring, hope that there's an Austrian GP, and am glad there will be a race at Spa.
 
The problem with new track design is not Tilke but the FIA guidelines. There are so many rules like the angle of first corner, there HAS to be a slow, twisty section and so on. As long as the guidelines he works to are so tight we're going to get more and more clones. He couldn't design something like Monza as a new track.
 
SimonK
there HAS to be a slow, twisty section
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That's not a rule.

The FIA rules for circuit design only spell out minimum and maximum circuit length and width, the maximum length of a straight, the size of run off areas (which are calculated based on the speed the cars approach the corners) and the maximum allowable gradient. There is nothing in the rules that says a circuit must contain a "slow, twisty section".
 
Tom
Great, Ecclestone has ruled out Austria as well. Why Bernie? Why?

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/186788/1/ecclestone_moves_to_rule_out_austrian_return.html
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Ol' Bernie is predictable. He's just trying to fish for a bit more money from Red Bull/Dietrich Mateschitz. Red Bull probably already got favourable terms in the concorde agreement, now Bernie wants favourable terms if they really want the track to hold a GP.

Bernie knows that DM had the Red Bull ring in mind for an F1 race when he spent all of that money bringing it up to modern FIA standards. Bernie knows what he's doing, he's not rejecting it outright, he's just highlighting that F1 has other options if DM isn't willing to front the right amount of cash.

Ardius
Nothing wrong with having a flat out track. Its something we lack these days in F1 but something that used to be quite prevalent back in the 70s. (along with proper street tracks like Long Beach, Dallas, Montjuic Park, Detroit, Adelaide etc).

Monza, Spa and Montreal are the only low downforce tracks on the entire calendar.
It would be nice if a new track gave us some variety and gave us a nice high-speed circuit like the old Hockenheim.

These days it seems "F1 track" just means a circuit with at least 20 corners, with several hairpins, sweepers and technical sections.
Where are the high speed corners, the bumpy tracks, the 90-degree street corners, etc? Variety is quickly starting to disappear from the F1 calendar. Its no wonder that Monza, Spa, Suzuka, Monaco, Montreal, Silverstone, Melbourne and Interlagos are starting to become the focus of most people's attention because they are the most unique tracks on the calendar. Pretty much everything else is the same flavour of track.
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Exactly what I feel. The new tracks are made to a formula, which means they must have a mix of characteristics. Those all high speed circuits of the past are gone, and it's a great shame. Imagine a circuit full of high speed corners built to modern standards. It could a figure of 8 like Suzuka to equalise tyre wear on each side, and every corner would be flat out in qualifying but not quite when under heavy fuel load or with worn tyres; it would be epic.

The only reason I can see as to why low speed corners are better is that they can create better overtaking opportunities when preceded by a straight.

prisonermonkeys
That's not a rule.

The FIA rules for circuit design only spell out minimum and maximum circuit length and width, the maximum length of a straight, the size of run off areas (which are calculated based on the speed the cars approach the corners) and the maximum allowable gradient. There is nothing in the rules that says a circuit must contain a "slow, twisty section".
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Nothing in the rules states that, but it seems to be one of the ingredients within Tilke's formula. The philosophy is that high speed corners don't challenge the driver as much these days, nor do they enable overtaking. Obviously there are safety implications too, but I feel they have been rectified somewhat by the huge run-off requirement these days. So whilst there isn't strictly a 'rule', Tilke circuits are designed with at least one slow, technical section in mind. Obviously Tilke doesn't always have free reign with the circuit layout, infact he rarely does. It is a trend though that in the circuits he has designed, very few of them have one defining characteristic in terms of overall layout. He's got an idea in his head of the 'perfect circuit', which he tries to replicate every time. I wish that just once he would say to himself "Screw it, this one isn't going to have any slow sections, just one single 60 degree turn for overtaking, and the rest almost flat out".

I believe that high speed corners are more challenging than slow/technical sections, despite the run-off areas and the huge downforce on the modern cars. I also feel that if a circuit was made up mostly of high speed corners, then increased tyre wear would come into play and that would breed overtaking in itself.
 
Seismica
Nothing in the rules states that, but it seems to be one of the ingredients within Tilke's formula.
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And I'm not denying that. I'm just refuting SimonK's statement that the rules demand modern circuits have "slow, twisty bits".
 
prisonermonkeys
That's not a rule.

The FIA rules for circuit design only spell out minimum and maximum circuit length and width, the maximum length of a straight, the size of run off areas (which are calculated based on the speed the cars approach the corners) and the maximum allowable gradient. There is nothing in the rules that says a circuit must contain a "slow, twisty section".
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I stand corrected then, I was sure there was, something to do with sponsors being more visible at slower speed but I guess it was just a rumour or complete you know what.
 
Singapore is one of the best tracks and location combo of the current ones, by far.

Singaporev2 replacing valencia = better calendar.
 
Location to me is utterly irrelevant, all I care about is the track itself and street tracks like Singapore are awful IMO. I don't give a rat's ass about the night race or the "glitz and glamour". That "Singapore Sling" is possibly the worst corner design in F1 today. Awful.
 
I see it as a better Monaco. The idea of Monaco is to see who lasts and who hits the wall and who still goes fast enough to not give the person behind an easy chance. Same idea with Singapore.
 
Good, because I personally don't mind it bar the awful reprofiled final section, and Valencia is dire.

Would refurbishing Jerez be out of the question?
 
Go back to the old layout of Catalunya without the silly chicane at the end and thats the best we can get from Spain.
Jerez isn't really a much better track for racing.
 
Ardius
Go back to the old layout of Catalunya without the silly chicane at the end and thats the best we can get from Spain.
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Definitely agree with this.

Ardius
Jerez isn't really a much better track for racing.
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I don't know, I always quite liked Jerez but I suppose that in this day of unbelievable grip compared to the 1980s, it wouldn't make for a good race.
 
The final chicane isn't the problem with Catalunya. The problem with the circuit is that whoever designed it tried to fit as much as possible into the smallest amount of space. That chicane might not be great, but the circuit wasn't much to begin with.
 
It wasn't, but I didn't think it was a terrible track. There were always far worse circuits on the calendar. Some have been dropped, as have some good tracks, but other poor ones are still there. It's a middle of the road track, which statistically Formula One must have. They can't all be world beaters.

Fun fact: I used to confuse Catalunya and Estoril on Formula 1 97 because to me they had very similar configurations. But if push came to shove, I know which one I'd rather see racing from.
 
So any rumors of what races may be getting the axe? Or are they going to try and get the teams to agree to a season with over 20 races?
 
prisonermonkeys
The final chicane isn't the problem with Catalunya. The problem with the circuit is that whoever designed it tried to fit as much as possible into the smallest amount of space. That chicane might not be great, but the circuit wasn't much to begin with.
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The chicane just makes it worse. It actually spreads the field out and further denies us overtaking opportunities.
 
Ardius
The chicane just makes it worse. It actually spreads the field out and further denies us overtaking opportunities.
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Used to be a favourite track on mine. The last chicane though ruins it for me.
 

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