Motorsport Off Topic Thread

Here's a question:
on this forum, people write how bad Tilke tracks are. Never a good word to say.

However, whenever I've heard drivers and F1 officals talk about Tilke designed tracks, they wax lyrical about him. They describe the tracks with nothing but superlatives - never a bad word to say. NEVER.

So, whats going on here? Drivers and F1 officials love his tracks. So much so, that they always use his company to design new tracks. Yet OCUK forumites dislike his tracks.

Something isnt adding up here.

Either drivers and F1 officials dont know what they are talking about OR F1 forumites don't know a good track from a bad one. Can someone explain these polarised opinions?

Surely F1 drivers are the best people qualified to judge a track...right?
 
A track to enjoy driving on can be completely different to one that makes a good race to watch. Hungary is a good example - challenges the drivers but not great to watch in terms of wheel to wheel racing.
 
It depends as we all want different things.

F1 drivers usually want a relatively straightforward race, and a nice billiard-smooth, predictable track will usually give you that.

Bernie and the FIA want the absolute best facilities they can get and a brand-spanking-new track will usually give you them (and you can't argue with his off-track designing - it's superb).

The fans want unpredictable racing, plenty of close action and watching drivers really work for their money. A nice narrow, old-school, bumpy track, with some history to go alongside it. Can't beat it for me.

It's not just Tilke tracks for me. He designed the 90's redesign at the A1-Ring, which is good (not a patch on the old Österreichring, but then the old Österreichring would be pretty poor in current cars, with half the corners easily flat out). He designed the Istanbul and Sepang (bit wide) tracks, also good modern layouts. But he didn't design Magny-Cours, though that has a lot of the traits of a Tilke track (ultra-smooth, straight into a stupidly slow hairpin and the racing was seldom up to much) which I never looked forward to.

For me, the grand prix I most look forward to watching is Singapore. The racing isn't always great, but it's fantastic to see the drivers having to hustle the cars around the track. Minus a really good overtaking spot and a touch long, but I really enjoy watching the drivers racing around there.
 
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Duke said:
A track to enjoy driving on can be completely different to one that makes a good race to watch. Hungary is a good example - challenges the drivers but not great to watch in terms of wheel to wheel racing.
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This.

Tilke tracks are brilliant facilities and can be brilliant to drive. But if they produce poor racing then the fans don't like them.

It makes sense to me that the fans favourate tracks might be ones the drivers find difficult.
 
Anyone seen this? It's epic. Honda recreated Senna's pole lap at Suzuka from 1989 using lights and speakers set up all around the track.
 
Maranello, 29 July – “The Ferrari I saw in yesterday’s race doesn’t sit well with me.” President Montezemolo was very clear when, early in the morning, he opened the meeting with Stefano Domenicali and the Scuderia engineers, the day after a disappointing Hungarian Grand Prix, especially on the performance front. The President asked for an immediate upping of the tempo, right from Spa, to start being a contender for victory again, as had been the case up to the Canadian Grand Prix.

As usual, Montezemolo did not mince his words when it came to asking the team to step up a gear. Each one of the engineers present received a “gift” of a knife, along with an invitation – metaphorical up to a point – to put it between their teeth when thinking how to tackle the second half of the season.

This is definitely not the time to start arguing over who was responsible for this or that decision, partly because everything is still possible with nine Grands Prix to go. The points are available and so is the potential to score enough of them to win. Montezemolo is doing his utmost to ensure that the team has all the support and resources it needs, starting with the announcement that James Allison, formerly with Lotus, will join the Maranello team, starting work already on 1st September. However, there is a need to close ranks, without giving in to rash outbursts that, while understandable in the immediate aftermath of a bad result, are no use to anyone.

That was a reference to the latest comments from Fernando Alonso, which did not go down well with Montezemolo, nor with anyone in the team. So, when Montezemolo called the Spaniard this morning to wish him a happy birthday, he also tweaked his ear, reminding him that, “all the great champions who have driven for Ferrari have always been asked to put the interests of the team above their own. This is the moment to stay calm, avoid polemics and show humility and determination in making one’s own contribution, standing alongside the team and its people both at the track and outside it.”

Montezemolo also attended the technical analysis, which went into every detail, leaving no stone unturned, including the subject of the introduction of the new tyres over the course of the last two races, a variable that definitely did not suit the Ferrari. Pirelli’s choice contributed to artificially altering the hierarchy in the field, something that has not pleased the President or the men of the Scuderia. This topic will be the subject of further debate in the near future.
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ooops
 
Why would they make something like that public.....completely stupid by Montez..Utterly utterly stupid to only bring much more attention to it.
 
I can see Alonso going to rb because he takes notice of stats and things like that
were as kimi just turns up drives and goes home. I would pick Alonso over kimi.
 
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