US Grand Prix Circuit Plans

[ThreeWheeling]

Plans for the new circuit at Austin have been revealed. It seems to borrow from a lot of existing circuits but whether they all come together to make a great circuit remains to be seen. At least it has elevation changes even if it does have the Tilke trademark hairpin-long straight combination.

www.vivaf1.com/blog/?p=4644

[dpbird90]

Just looks like an Abu Dhabi clone to me, a poor attempt by Tilke. All they needed to do for a USGP was stick a new pit area and all the hospitality crap at Watkins Glen, and most importantly LEAVE THE TRACK ALONE! There is considerably more runoff there than in previous years, apparantly because of quite a few shunts in NASCAR, but I'd love to see Hamilton, Alonso, Webber etc battling it out at the Glen rather than what will predictably be another supermarket car park.

[Allyc85]

That plan looks rubbish, there better be some good elevation changes to make it slightly interesting!

It will produce better racing than Watkins Glen though, that place is way too tight and twisty for f1 cars to pass and would be another Hungoring IMO.

[Mazda Baiter]

Well, one side of the circuit looks ok.

It does, however, strongly resemble Silverstone on that same side. Could anyone lay that section over a google earth map of Silverstone just so we can see how lazy Bernie's lapdog really has been?

The other side of the circuit looks terrible.

41 metres elevation though, that's quite a lot. I think Rouen is only 51.

[Fire99]

I hope the guy is listening to the drivers comments. They want a bigger challenge than they're getting at the mo.

[purple haze]

I'd much rather they went somewhere like Road America(Elkhart Lake) - a good 4 mile course and seems perfectly OK for CART/Indy cars or even Laguna Seca. At least they have a bit of character. Tilke tracks all seem to be out of the same mould & haven't produced much in the way of overtaking/driver challenges or heaven help us spectator enjoyment.

[Killer2005]

Long straight followed by a hairpin.

Thats new

[Allyc85]

The elevation changes!

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/86304

[RDMcG]

purple haze said:

I'd much rather they went somewhere like Road America(Elkhart Lake) - a good 4 mile course and seems perfectly OK for CART/Indy cars or even Laguna Seca. At least they have a bit of character. Tilke tracks all seem to be out of the same mould & haven't produced much in the way of overtaking/driver challenges or heaven help us spectator enjoyment.

I love that track, but I suggested this on a thread in the past, and someone correclty pointed out that its beside a realroad track that would be very difficult to move, which has problems for runoffs and also for expansion.

[hornetrider]

I'm going to go against the grain here, I reckon that looks pretty good. There's an uphill entry into the tight hairpin providing a solid braking area. Then look at the exit out of the hairpin, that's a blind crest going into what looks like a Maggots/Becketts style complex followed by a couple of mild kinks and what looks like a high speed left hander then steep uphill into a slightly wider open hairpin.

I reckon it looks pretty bloody good. The proof, as always, will only come out when they get cars on it.

ETA pic:

Edited by hornetrider on Wednesday 1st September 15:59

[DangerousMike]

i wish they could have a few derelict warehouses there, like at valencia.

[The Black Flash]

The crests, especially the one with the hairpin on, are certainly promising.

[Atomic Gibbon]

I looked at it and at first thought it should run the other way round - I can only spot 2 obvious overtaking areas, and I'm sure there's 3 the other way.

That said, at least it has a mixture of fast and slow, hopefully it might show up some differences between slow corner grip (RB, Renault), and hight straight line speed (FI, MacLaren) etc.

The yanks still won't "get it" though, I'm sure..

[Mazda Baiter]

I'm still trying to work out which American Indian symbol Tilke has based this around.

[AlpineWhite]

Atomic Gibbon said:

I looked at it and at first thought it should run the other way round

Ditto.

[slipstream 1985]

looks like they are trying to make a "turn 8" is it 3 apexes

[DangerousMike]

yeah the multi apex corner before the last two left handers of the lap is clearly a turn 8 replica. the bit at the beginning of the lap is a silverstone copy, clearly. The right hander after the uphill hairpin even looks a bit like copse.

Edited by DangerousMike on Wednesday 1st September 18:17

[Mazda Baiter]

slipstream 1985 said:

looks like they are trying to make a "turn 8" is it 3 apexes

So, maggotts/becketts complex, turn 8 from Istanbul, Hairpin-straight-Hairpin from Malaysia/China, anything else been spotted

[mattikake]

I think it looks alright. A tight looking "infield" section and a Becketts complex clone (which won't be as good) but at least it follows onto a decent overtaking opportunity. So if you're a "man" through it, you could make a move...

Why are all the entrances into hairpins uphill though? They need to be downhill, really steeply downhill, to lengthen the braking distances as much as possible.

[Mazda Baiter]

mattikake said:

I think it looks alright. A tight looking "infield" section and a Becketts complex clone (which won't be as good) but at least it follows onto a decent overtaking opportunity. So if you're a "man" through it, you could make a move...

Why are all the entrances into hairpins uphill though? They need to be downhill, really steeply downhill, to lengthen the braking distances as much as possible.

Better to view on tv.