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The Rise of "Modern" circuits.......; Do they excite like traditional ones?
Topic Started: Feb 15 2007, 06:34 PM (310 Views)
safc_fan89
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safc_fan89
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I guess this boils down to whether F1 should celebrate the past or move on...take the new Wembley stadium. The old one was a complete mess. The Twin Towers have gone, but most people won't care because we will now have one of the best stadia in the world as our national stadium.

Monaco has become the most tedious of races, at Monza you can't overtake most of the time, ditto at Silverstone. So are they really that good?

The thing I am most bothered about regarding the new tracks is the lack of atmosphere. It's stupid having acres of runoff areas because there is no penalty for making an error. For example, if you run wider at turn 8 at Istanbul you should get a wrecked car as punishment...not a quick recovery and resumption of race. Plus F1 is going there because they are government-backed, so Bernie squeezes more money out of them, and then expects European tracks to do the same. I still fail to see why circuits should have to pay such a ridiculous amount just to host an F1 race.

"And there are an increasing number of tracks that are designed to give us good racing, but don't." well...Bahrain has, China sort of has, Malaysia sort of has, Turkey definitely has. Hockenheim has...by the end of the 90s all races there were fairly boring, plus it was probably the most characterless track on the calendar.

And can someone explain whyy Catalunya is detested so much? It is/was a very good track ruined by the nature of the cars.
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safc_fan89
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ELUSIVEJIM,Feb 16 2007
11:12 AM
Monaco will never be dropped from the F1 calendar which is a blessing as well but why does Bernie go on about Silverstone not being safe when Monaco must be the most dangerous track in F1.

How can it be when all the hazards have been removed? La rascasse is hardly a corner any more, Ste Devote is nothing more than a kink now, the swimming pool section is too easy to make errors at now...etc etc. So how is it dangerous? It's not a good circuit, only good for the 'glamour'.
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GordonB
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safc_fan89,Feb 16 2007
11:28 AM
Monaco has become the most tedious of races, at Monza you can't overtake most of the time, ditto at Silverstone. So are they really that good?

Erm ...

Monaco Tedious? Certainly not for the past 3 or four years it hasn't - last year had webber nearly coming 3rd, Schumacher storming up from the back of the grid. (and his prior antics). Year before saw Ruebens having a flap after the race because Schumi overtook him on the line. Button hassling all over the back of fisichella ...

Silverstone likewise sees quite a lot of overtaking and changes in performance during the race - in fact it's one circuit where it does seem genuinely possible to overtake if you're brave enough. Kimi, Ruebens and Alonso have all done so in the recent past.

Monza - hmm i might have to agree with you on that one, except that the Alonso row last year and his spectacular run followed by an even more spectacular blow up hardly made it tedious.

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safc_fan89
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People never state that Schu gained most polaces when the safety car worked to his advantage. And had this been on any modern track, Alonso would not still have been leading 40-odd laps into the race.

Silverstone...the new regs for 2005 have ruined it...blame the FIA for that one. The 05 and 06 races have been so boring.

It's more of a bash at the cars than the tracks, but I don't think the ones I mentioned have any right to be untouchable. And Alonso's run was aided by one overtaking move, I seem to recall. If that's what us F1 fans call excitement, it shows just why things need to change.
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Paul_Murtagh
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I still believe they should have kept the old Hockenheim circuit. Far enough they believed it was getting too dangerous due to the increase in straight line speed, but it always produced great racing and slipstreaming. The stadium section was also more spectacular back then as the drivers were out in the forest for around 1min 15secs of the lap then come into the stadium with all the noise and colour it was unique, whereas now the stadium is just another normal part of the circuit with the forest gone
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safc_fan89
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At 2004 speeds it would have been far too dangerous I think.
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Red Andy
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Paul_Murtagh,Feb 17 2007
10:39 AM
I still believe they should have kept the old Hockenheim circuit. Far enough they believed it was getting too dangerous due to the increase in straight line speed, but it always produced great racing and slipstreaming. The stadium section was also more spectacular back then as the drivers were out in the forest for around 1min 15secs of the lap then come into the stadium with all the noise and colour it was unique, whereas now the stadium is just another normal part of the circuit with the forest gone

At the very least, Paul, they should have maintained the original Hockenheim circuit in the event that it could be used by some other formula, or maybe returned to by F1 if car safety was improved and speeds were cut down. The circuit has instead been ripped apart and is only represented now by a gap in the forest. If nothing else, it's a disrespect to Jim Clark, whose memorial had to be moved to accommodate the changes.
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theghostofnuvolari
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if i had my way they'd all be back at the nurburgring nordschleife once a year !

add back the original spa circuit, and the original oesterreichring and let f1 cars back into the indy 500 and i think we'd have something to please everyone.

of course most of these circuits would probably need widening, a few more safety barriers and a couple of dozen ambulo-copters , but what the hell, it'd be worth it !!
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