Track Modifications

[waggles]

Hey guys,

The last design a track thread didn't go so well, probably because of the competition thing. I've decided to start from scratch, and dedicate this thread to the modification of tracks that you don't like, into layouts that might be more conducive to overtaking. more fun, whatever. I'll start with my modification of the Hungaroring:




Run in reverse to the original, Turn 1 presents an excellent overtaking opportunity. Turn 2 allows a switchback, and Turns 3 and 4 are flat. Turn 5 is another opportunity to pass. Turns 6 and 7 should be flat, however and high fuel loads lifting may be necessary. Turns 8 and 9 are two 90 degree corners, with a good run out of 9 essential for the fast run through 10, 11 and 12. Sweeping corner is turn 13, probably third gear, kept from the original track. Turn 14 will be downhill and around 5th gear, and probably very easy to screw up. A good run out of there will enable a chance to pass in turn 15, and then even turn 16, a double apex corner which leads onto the pit straight.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Valencia

This gets rid of all the fiddly bits. The cars now go flat out from the start/finish line to the bridge, avoiding the chicane across the top of the harbour. Likewise, the switchback at the bottom of the circuit - where Webber had his accident - is now gone; the circuit has been extended and the three corners in the section have been morphed into one more open, sweeping bend. This also allows a faster approach down to turn seventeen. The final section has been largely untouched, keeping what Martin Brundle referred to as the "proper corners" at turns nineteen and twenty. The only modification is to tighten the last two bends a little to make life difficult for the drivers, and the final bend is now a blind, double-apex left.

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Singapore

More weeding out of the fiddly parts - and these are actual changes Singapore is considering for 2011 (as there was not enough time to get them approved for this season). The first sector goes unchanged, but the back straight has been extended by an extra two hundred metres so that the cars now go around the outside of the war memorial instead of diving around the inside. The nasty little chicane at the bottom of the circuit before the bridge has been given the flick, now becoming a medium-speed sweeper. Finally, the single most important change: the chicanes along the waterfront are gone. They were only realy a gimmick to have the cars go under the grandstand whist having the grandstand overook the water, which has created no less than three chicanes. This section is now much faster, allowing the cars to pick up some serious speed and make the final corner even tricker.

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Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi goes from its longest configuration to its shortest. The cars now go hard left at the top of the hill into the "corkscrew", a section of circuit that falls fifteen metres in a very short space of time with a difficult right-handed jink in the middle. They rejoin on the back straight and charge down to the switchback, but instead of filing onto the second half of the circuit, they cut back to the main straight. The net result is that the circuit becomes very quick, requiring one hundred and forty laps to meet the standard race distance. The only problem is that Abu Dhabi has invested so much in this circuit that this configuration will never be used.

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Bahrain

Another superfast circuit, like the above alterations to Abu Dhabi. The shortened lap length means another hundred-lap race is on order, though the downside is the loss of the excellent turn nine/ten combination (the left-handers onto the back straight). After experimenting unsuccessfully with the longer-format layout this year, Bahrain may be much more willing than Abu Dhabi to shorten the circuit length, and at 3.53km, it is just within the FIA's parameters for minimum circuit length.

 

[waggles]

Valencia will still be dull with that layout I think-and to be honest, I think all of those tracks would be incredibly dull to watch.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Well, I reckon your reinterpretation of Hungaroring would actually slow the cars down even more.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I don't see why they'd be dull. They're designed to be faster, by removing the unnecessary parts. They may not be as exciting as the likes of Silverstone, but they're not going to be as dull as previously thought.

Barcelona

The first half of the circuit gets given a completely new rhythm. With the exception of the first bend, the connecting parts have been designed to be fairly quick without simply being straights. Opening-radius corners like the Parabolica are a continuing theme here, but the final corner is now tightening-radius and still very quick.

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Hungaroring

Rather than speed it up or slow it down, I decided to totally re-route it. The main straight is about all that remains of the original layout: the first corner is now a mirror of itself to make it harder, before weaving down to the back half of the circuit and taking it in the opposite direction to the current layout. The quicker corners on the far side have been kept and the slower ones bypassed as the circuit loops around before branching off onto an entirely new seciont that loops up around the top of the circuit and down behind the grandstands before the final corner, a giant constant-radius bend.

 

[waggles]

That Hungaroring would be very interesting indeed.

What I mean by dull is very repetitive-Bahrain would be so point-and-squirt that the drivers would pass very quickly on. Abu Dhabi loses the hotel bit that basically made the circuit what it is. Singapore now looks like a retarded Monza, and Valencia would be the highest speed track on the calendar.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

That's kind of the idea. Put them in the context of a wider calendar, and you've got a lot more diversity than twenty five-and-a-half kilometre circuits.

 

[lukeconnelly]

I can't set up the link