Ultimate Race Track
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Discussion

RobM77

Original Poster:

35,349 posts

263 months

Monday 1st December 2008
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There are often discussions on here about this. Check out today's Metro to see Lewis Hamilton's vision of the dream track. smile Page 3.

Kurgen

1,447 posts

263 months

Monday 1st December 2008
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It exists, but F1 don't race there anymore..




(close to Adenau)!

biggrin

phatgixer

4,988 posts

278 months

Monday 1st December 2008
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Kurgen said:
It exists, but F1 don't race there anymore..




(close to Adenau)!

biggrin
I disagree. It is a unique challenge and very exciting, but as a track it is all about the circuit and not dicing / racing IMHO.

Spa is a nicer place to race and I think Vallelunga is up there, too...

RobM77

Original Poster:

35,349 posts

263 months

Monday 1st December 2008
quotequote all
phatgixer said:
Kurgen said:
It exists, but F1 don't race there anymore..




(close to Adenau)!

biggrin
I disagree. It is a unique challenge and very exciting, but as a track it is all about the circuit and not dicing / racing IMHO.
True, but is that not more to do with the variety of vehicles you have in a given race there and the length of the races (1000kh, 24hr etc)? Imagine a three lap race for a one make series there smile That'd be close and exciting!

jacobyte

4,768 posts

271 months

Monday 1st December 2008
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RobM77 said:
Imagine a three lap race for a one make series there smile That'd be close and exciting!
Such races are run in the week leading up to the 24hr, and in the ones I have seen the cars are spread out quite early on. But that could be due to many drivers not knowing the Ring well enough to make it a level playing field.

RobM77

Original Poster:

35,349 posts

263 months

Monday 1st December 2008
quotequote all
jacobyte said:
RobM77 said:
Imagine a three lap race for a one make series there smile That'd be close and exciting!
Such races are run in the week leading up to the 24hr, and in the ones I have seen the cars are spread out quite early on. But that could be due to many drivers not knowing the Ring well enough to make it a level playing field.
yes That probably is the case, yes. To be honest I kind of prefer that to what we have now, where everyone in a race knows every millimetre of the race track. It's more in the spirit of the original road races like Pescara etc.

flemke

23,493 posts

266 months

Monday 1st December 2008
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The racing on the NS can't be as close as it is on a "normal" circuit, even when the drivers know the circuit cold.
The track is too narrow, a lot of it is off-camber, and there are almost no runoff areas.
It's true that occasionally the top guys will briefly go at it hammer-and-tongs, but they're in RSRs and the like. By comparison, the action in a Supercup race (that is, with similar cars to RSRs, and some of the same drivers) is non-stop and frenetic. That will never happen on the NS.

RobM77

Original Poster:

35,349 posts

263 months

Monday 1st December 2008
quotequote all
flemke said:
The racing on the NS can't be as close as it is on a "normal" circuit, even when the drivers know the circuit cold.
The track is too narrow, a lot of it is off-camber, and there are almost no runoff areas.
It's true that occasionally the top guys will briefly go at it hammer-and-tongs, but they're in RSRs and the like. By comparison, the action in a Supercup race (that is, with similar cars to RSRs, and some of the same drivers) is non-stop and frenetic. That will never happen on the NS.
Wider than Cadwell Park though? I'd say comparable to somewhere like Brands or parts of the present Donny (Craner Curves?). Not sure why the camber would affect the actual racing? You're right about the run off though - there is absolutely none!

One other possible reason that I just thought of is the number of "straights" at the Nurburgring. For instance, if you come onto the throttle just a second earlier out of the Hatzenbach you're going to carry that advantage all the way down to Aremberg basically! Same thing coming out of Berwerk on the run up to the Karousell. Tighter circuits tend to keep the cars together more maybe?

entropy

6,441 posts

232 months

Monday 1st December 2008
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Spa, Suzuka, Bathurst and.....

































San Luis - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3LuK8SvlGU

flemke

23,493 posts

266 months

Monday 1st December 2008
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RobM77 said:
flemke said:
The racing on the NS can't be as close as it is on a "normal" circuit, even when the drivers know the circuit cold.
The track is too narrow, a lot of it is off-camber, and there are almost no runoff areas.
It's true that occasionally the top guys will briefly go at it hammer-and-tongs, but they're in RSRs and the like. By comparison, the action in a Supercup race (that is, with similar cars to RSRs, and some of the same drivers) is non-stop and frenetic. That will never happen on the NS.
Wider than Cadwell Park though? I'd say comparable to somewhere like Brands or parts of the present Donny (Craner Curves?). Not sure why the camber would affect the actual racing? You're right about the run off though - there is absolutely none!

One other possible reason that I just thought of is the number of "straights" at the Nurburgring. For instance, if you come onto the throttle just a second earlier out of the Hatzenbach you're going to carry that advantage all the way down to Aremberg basically! Same thing coming out of Berwerk on the run up to the Karousell. Tighter circuits tend to keep the cars together more maybe?
Problem is that often the track is more negatively cambered on the outside; however difficult it may be to overtake on the outside generically, at the 'ring it's that much harder.
The example you give is a good one. At the end of that long straight into Schwedenkreuz, it's possible to take the blind left-hand crest with a blocking move on the inside. Say you do that. Anybody who's trying to overtake you would have to come around your right side. The crest there is off-camber. eek
It is a fact that they used to race F1 cars there, at a time when the circuit was even more diabolical than it is today. Unlike today, however, at that time the drivers respected and treated each other properly.

RobM77

Original Poster:

35,349 posts

263 months

Monday 1st December 2008
quotequote all
flemke said:
RobM77 said:
flemke said:
The racing on the NS can't be as close as it is on a "normal" circuit, even when the drivers know the circuit cold.
The track is too narrow, a lot of it is off-camber, and there are almost no runoff areas.
It's true that occasionally the top guys will briefly go at it hammer-and-tongs, but they're in RSRs and the like. By comparison, the action in a Supercup race (that is, with similar cars to RSRs, and some of the same drivers) is non-stop and frenetic. That will never happen on the NS.
Wider than Cadwell Park though? I'd say comparable to somewhere like Brands or parts of the present Donny (Craner Curves?). Not sure why the camber would affect the actual racing? You're right about the run off though - there is absolutely none!

One other possible reason that I just thought of is the number of "straights" at the Nurburgring. For instance, if you come onto the throttle just a second earlier out of the Hatzenbach you're going to carry that advantage all the way down to Aremberg basically! Same thing coming out of Berwerk on the run up to the Karousell. Tighter circuits tend to keep the cars together more maybe?
Problem is that often the track is more negatively cambered on the outside; however difficult it may be to overtake on the outside generically, at the 'ring it's that much harder.
The example you give is a good one. At the end of that long straight into Schwedenkreuz, it's possible to take the blind left-hand crest with a blocking move on the inside. Say you do that. Anybody who's trying to overtake you would have to come around your right side. The crest there is off-camber. eek
It is a fact that they used to race F1 cars there, at a time when the circuit was even more diabolical than it is today. Unlike today, however, at that time the drivers respected and treated each other properly.
Ah - I understand. I confess I've never raced there, just done tourist laps.

I think (hope) that respect for other drivers comes as a function of the danger of a track/corner, and overtaking moves have become more risky now mainly because F1 is much safer than it was in the 1960s and 70s.

There's also an element of aerodynamics in it as well of course - we're told that one has to stay quite a way back when following an F1 car through corners and the moves we tend to get are therefore quite desperate sometimes; but let's hope next year's regs will change that.

MrKipling43

5,788 posts

245 months

Monday 1st December 2008
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RobM77 said:
I think overtaking moves have become more risky now mainly because F1 is much safer than it was in the 1960s and 70s.
I reckon you're dead-on with that. If they all had to drive in polo shirts and leather helmets, I suspect you'd see them being much more cautious.

RobM77

Original Poster:

35,349 posts

263 months

Monday 1st December 2008
quotequote all
MrKipling43 said:
RobM77 said:
I think overtaking moves have become more risky now mainly because F1 is much safer than it was in the 1960s and 70s.
I reckon you're dead-on with that. If they all had to drive in polo shirts and leather helmets, I suspect you'd see them being much more cautious.
yes It was a completely different sport back then. For starters everyone knew each other and there wasn't the corporate might involved. Secondly, the risk of dying was sadly so much greater - it wasn't just something that remained a possibility and you blanked out, people really were getting killed all the time. Jackie Stewart, whose career spanned that era, lost a huge number of his close friends and colleagues through motor racing - I think the number was something astounding like 57?

freedman

6,015 posts

236 months

Joe911

2,763 posts

264 months

Wednesday 3rd December 2008
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freedman said:
The shape of the circuit, seen at time index 0:12 looks interesting. Ooo err.

dpbird90

5,535 posts

219 months

Wednesday 3rd December 2008
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It's gotta be the Nordschleife, or old school Hockenheim. Blasting down the narrow track at 200mph with your rival right beside you bashing wheels and trading paint would really separate the men from the boys, yet Bernie & Max's (non Nazi, of course) goons muscled in and made Hockenheim a bit of a wuss circuit. Re-lay the old track and have some proper racing again!

How come the Germans can make such excellent race tracks? Nordschelife, Hockenheim, the list goes on.
But of the modern day GP circuits, the best is Spa, even if somebody (god forbid) actually uses the health and safety run off zone that the FIA insist on putting there to ruin not just Spa, but all F1 tracks. Would have been interesting to see what Lewis would have done if there WAS a wall there (sorry don't want to open this can of worms again) anyway back on topic.

The problem is proper driver's circuits just don't exist these days, with the exception of the Nordschleife which has been unaltered. Putting a thousand miles of health and safety zones around every corner may make the racing more safe, but I would have thought that a modern day F1 car is tough enough to survive some nasty impacts (like Heikki's smash at Catalunya this year. The sense of speed is enhanced when you're driving between some unbelievably close objects. Don't believe me? Drive flat out down a single track road then do the same on a motorway. So the driver is having less fun and therefore we don't see the exciting racing we all want.

RobM77

Original Poster:

35,349 posts

263 months

Thursday 4th December 2008
quotequote all
dpbird90 said:
It's gotta be the Nordschleife, or old school Hockenheim. Blasting down the narrow track at 200mph with your rival right beside you bashing wheels and trading paint would really separate the men from the boys, yet Bernie & Max's (non Nazi, of course) goons muscled in and made Hockenheim a bit of a wuss circuit. Re-lay the old track and have some proper racing again!

How come the Germans can make such excellent race tracks? Nordschelife, Hockenheim, the list goes on.
But of the modern day GP circuits, the best is Spa, even if somebody (god forbid) actually uses the health and safety run off zone that the FIA insist on putting there to ruin not just Spa, but all F1 tracks. Would have been interesting to see what Lewis would have done if there WAS a wall there (sorry don't want to open this can of worms again) anyway back on topic.

The problem is proper driver's circuits just don't exist these days, with the exception of the Nordschleife which has been unaltered. Putting a thousand miles of health and safety zones around every corner may make the racing more safe, but I would have thought that a modern day F1 car is tough enough to survive some nasty impacts (like Heikki's smash at Catalunya this year. The sense of speed is enhanced when you're driving between some unbelievably close objects. Don't believe me? Drive flat out down a single track road then do the same on a motorway. So the driver is having less fun and therefore we don't see the exciting racing we all want.
Firstly, regarding the Hamilton/Raikonnen incident at Spa I think it would have changed the way that they both drove. The overtaking manouvre might not have happened and the block might not have done either.

Regarding safety on race tracks, firstly F1 is still dangerous depending on the nature of the impact (remember Hakinnen's big one? Schumie broke his legs only a few years ago too), and secondly the tracks aren't only used by Formula One. My own racing car is not made of super tough carbon fibre and I don't have a world class medical team seconds away from me. When I'm hammering round a corner in a spidery construction of metal and fibreglass I'd rather know that if something breaks on the car, some idiot locks wheels with me and launches me into the air, or I make an innocent mistake; that I'll end up a bit shaken and making excuses to the pit crew, rather than being airlifted to the nearest hospital... I love the Nurburgring and I love motor racing, but unecessary danger is something we could all do without.

anonymous-user

83 months

Thursday 4th December 2008
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as anyone seen the GT track in Argentina, it looks awesome, http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8... how come F1 gets crap like singapore nad bahrain and they get stuff like this?...

onomatopoeia

3,526 posts

246 months

Thursday 4th December 2008
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Spa
Mount Panorama http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=3sDDsMIyDiw
Bristol Motor Speedway

skinny

5,269 posts

264 months

Thursday 4th December 2008
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was it this track?

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=44700&a...

unfortunately the video looks like it has been put together by marketing men so you can't see the track whatsoever, instead it's just vacuous puke-inducing flashy advertising borrocks.